UCSB   LIBRARY 


and    rreedom 


Tlxe  Voice  and  Pen 
of  Eugene  V./  Debs 


WKile  mere  is  a  lower  class  I  am  in  it; 
While  mere  is  a  criminal  class  I  am  of  it; 
While  mere  is  a  soul  in  prison  I  am  not  free. 


Published    by 

PHIL  WAGNER 

St.   Louis 

1916 


"5 


r  •,, 


Introduction 

I  think  if  I  had  been  asked  to  name  this  work 
that  comes  to  us  from  the  rare  mind  and  tender 
heart  of  'Gene  Debs,  I  would  have  called  it  "The 
Old  Umbrella  Mender/'  It  was  this  tragic,  touch- 
ing tale  that  I  first  read  in  the  manuscript;  and  it 
is  the  memory  of  this  that  will  always  return  to  me 
when  I  think  of}  the  book.  It  is  the  perfect  paint 
ing  from  the  artist's  brush — the  sculptured  monu- 
ment from  the  master's  chisel — that  makes  one 
lowly,  loyal  soul  to  live  forever  in  the  hearts  of 
humanity's  lovers. 

Not  but  that  every  line  in  the  book  is  a  treasure, 
and  every  sentiment  brought  forth  an  appeal  to  all 
that  makes  for  justice,  and  equality,  and  freedom; 
nor  will  it  detract  from,  but  rather  add  to,  the 
beauty  and  inestimable  value  of  the  entire  collection 
if  others,  likewise,  carry  with  them  the  image  and 
memory  of  the  old  umbrella  mender,  as  they  travel 
with  Debs  the  struggling,  storm-tossed  way  of 
Labor  and  Freedom. 

HENRY  M.  TICHENOR. 
St.  Louis,  March  1,  1916. 


MISCELLANY 

I 


THE  OLD  UMBRELLA  MENDER. 

Coming    Nation,    March   1,    1913. 

It  was  on  a  cold  morning  late  in  November 
last,  just  after  the  national  election,  and  I  was 
walking  briskly  toward  my  office.  A  stiff  wind 
was  blowing  and  a  drizzling  rain  was  falling. 
The  threads  in  one  of  the  ribs  of  my  umbrella 
snapped  asunder  and  the  cover  flew  upward,  as 
it  has  a  way  of  doing,  and  I  was  about  to  lower 
my  disabled  shower-stick  when  I  ran  slapdash  into 
an  old  itinerant  umbrella  mender  with  his  outfit 
slung  across  his  back  and  shuffling  along  in  the 
opposite  direction.  He  had  noticed  the  ill-behavior 
of  my  umbrella.  It  snapped  from  its  bearing  even 
as  he  had  his  eyes  upon  it.  Perhaps  it  under- 
stood. Anyway  he  had  not  a  cent  in  his  pocket 
and  he  had  not  yet  breakfasted  that  cold  and  wet 
November  morning. 

He  was  about  65.  His  clothes  had  evidently 
weathered  many  a  storm  and  besides  b^ing  worn 
and  shabby  were  too  light  for  that  season.  Over- 
coat he  had  none.  Nor  gloves,  nor  overshoes. 
Mine  embarrassed  me. 

His  hat  had  been  brushed  to  a  standstill.  His 
shoes  were  making  their  last  stand  and  a  pro- 
truding toe,  red  with  the  cold,  seemed  to  hare 
been  shoved  out  as  a  signal  of  distress. 

The  outfit  of  the  old  fellow,  carried  on  his  back, 


10  LABOE   AND   FREEDOM. 

was  sorry  enough  to  fit  his  general  makeup,  and 
if  he  had  offered  himself  for  sale  just  as  he  stood, 
including  his  earthly  belongings  and  his  immortal 
soul,  he  would  have  found  no  bidder  nor  brought 
a  cent. 

The  face  of  the  old  umbrella  mender  lighted 
up  with  a  kindly  smile  as  he  commented  on  the 
strange  conduct  of  my  umbrella  in  slipping  a 
cog  just  as  he  happened  to  come  along.  I  asked 
him  by  what  evil  magic  he  did  the  trick  and  he 
laughed  in  a  half-hearted  way  just  to  be  polite, 
but  it  was  plain  that  he  had  long  since  forgotten 
how  to  laugh. 

As  we  stepped  into  the  shelter  of  an  adjoining 
store  he  sat  down  on  the  steps  and  drawing  a 
threaded  needle  from  beneath  the  lapel  of  his 
thin  and  faded  coat,  he  began  to  sew  the  cover 
back  into  its  proper  place.  His  fingers  were  red 
and  numb.  A  discolored  nail  partly  hid  a  badly 
bruised  thumb. 

He  had  difficulty  in  doing  this  bit  of  sewing, 
and  it  plainly  distressed  him.  His  eyesight  was 
failing  and  his  fingers  were  stiff  in  the  joints. 
Yet  he  strove  eagerly  and  intently  to  master  their 
dumb  protest.  And  he  hoped,  as  he  remarked, 
that  he  would  be  able  to  make  an  extra  bit  of 
money  to  provide  himself  with  a  pair  of  specta- 
cles, now  that  favorable  weather  had  set  in  for 
his  trade. 

Poor  human  soul,  I  thought  to  myself,  as  I 
looked  down  upon  the  weatherbeaten  brother  at  my 
feet!  A  vagabond  dog  among  his  kind  would 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  *i 

fare  better  than  this  worn-out  old  umbrella  mender 
in  a  civilized  human  community. 

The  warm  clothes  I  had  on  made  me  uncom- 
fortable as  I  saw  him  sitting  there  in  rags  mend- 
ing my  umbrella.  The  overcoat  I  wore  made  me 
ashamed  of  myself.  Every  time  the  umbrella 
mender  looked  up  out  of  his  rags  I  winced. 

What  crime  had  he  committed  that  condemned 
him  to  go  through  the  world  in  tatters  to  be  lashed 
by  the  merciless  blasts  of  winter  and  tormented  by 
hunger -pangs,  and  of  what  rare  virtue  was  I  pos- 
sessed that  entitled  me  to  wear  the  best  of  clothes 
and  eat  the  choicest  food ! 

Dared  I  call  him  brother?  And  could  I  call 
him  brother  without  insulting  him? 

These  were  the  reflections  that  agitated  my  mind 
and  troubled  my  heart. 

"Good  morning!"  was  the  cheery  greeting  of 
a  man  who  passed  on  the  sidewalk,  calling  me 
by  name. 

The  old  umbrella  mender  fairly  started  at  the 
mention  of  my  name.  He  had  just  completed  his 
bit  of  sewing  and  the  threaded  needle  fell  from, 
his  fingers. 

"Excuse  me!"  he  said  timidly,  "is  this  Mr. 
Debs?" 

"Yes,"  I  answered. 

"Eugene  V.  Debs?" 

"Yes,  brother." 

"Thank  God,"  exclaimed  the  old  umbrella 
mender  as  he  fairly  bounded  to  his  feet  and  seized 


12  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

my  extended  hand  with  both  of  his.  There  were 
tears  in  his  eyes  and  his  face  was  flushed. 

"Of  course  I  know  you  now/'  he  went  on.  "This 
is  your  home  and  I  have  often  seen  your  picture. 
But  this  is  the  first  time  I  have  ever  seen  you 
and  if  it  hadn't  been  for  your  umbrella  snapping 
just  as  I  came  along,  I  would  have  passed  you 
by  and  the  chances  are  that  I  never  would  have 
seen  you.  God  must  have  tipped  off  your  um- 
brella to  give  me  a  stop-signal." 

"Say,  Gene,"  he  continued,  still  holding  me 
with  both  hands,  "I  am  pretty  well  down,  ain't 
I  ?  "  About  all  in  and  making  my  last  stand  before 
shuffling  off." 

"But  eay,  Gtene,  I  never  scabbed.  Look  at  these 
hands!  I'm  an  old  rail  and  I  followed  the  busi- 
ness for  twenty-seven  years.  I  broke  and  ran  a 
freight  train  most  of  that  time.  Never  got  a 
passenger  run  because  I  was  too  active  on  griev- 
ance committees  and  called  a  firebrand  by  the  of- 
ficials. I  wouldn't  stand  for  any  of  their  dirty 
work.  If  I'd  been  like  some  of  ?em  I'd  had  a 
passenger  train  years  ago  and  been  saved  lots  of 
grief.  But  I'd  rather  be  a  broken  down  old  um- 
brella-fixer without  a  friend  than  to  be  a  scab 
and  worth  a  million." 

A  gleam  of  triumph  lighted  up  his  seamed  and 
weatherbeaten  countenance. 

"Did  you  belong  to  the  A.  R  U.  ?"  I  asked. 

"Did  I?"  he  answered  with  peculiar  and  assur- 
ing emphasis.  "I  was  the  first  man  on  our  di- 
vision to  sign  the  list,  and  my  name  was  first  on 


LABOR  AND   FREEDOM.  13 

the  charter.  Look  it  up  and  you'll  find  me  there. 
My  card  I  lost  in  Ohio  where  I  was  run  in  as  a 
vag.  The  deputy  that  searched  me  at  the  jail 
took  my  card  from  my  pocket  and  I  never  saw 
it  again.  It  was  all  I  had  left.  I  raised  a  row 
about  it  and  they  threatened  to  lock  me  up  again. 
I  was  told  afterwards  that  the  deputy  had  scabbed 
in  the  A.  E.  U.  strike." 

"Did  I  belong  to  the  A.  K.  U.  ?  Well,  I  should 
say  I  did  and  I  am  proud  of  it  even  if  they  did 
put  me  on  the  hummer  and  pull  me  down  to  where 
I  am  today.  But  I  never  scabbed.  And  when  I 
cross  the  big  divide  I  can  walk  straight  up  to  the 
bar  of  judgment  and  look  God  in  the  face  with- 
out a  flicker." 

"We  had  the  railroads  whipped  to  a  standstill," 
he  said,  warming  up,  "but  the  soldiers,  the  courts 
and  the  army  of  deputy  United  States  marshals 
that  scabbed  our  jobs  were  too  much  for  us.  It 
was  the  government  and  not  the  railroads  that  put 
us  out,  and  it  was  a  sorry  day  for  the  railroad  men 
of  this  country.  Mark  what  I  tell  you,  the  time 
will  come  when  they  will  have  to  reorganize  the 
A.  R.  U.  It  was  the  only  union  that  all  could 
join  and  in  which  all  got  a  square  deal,  and  it 
was  the  only  union  the  railroad  managers  ever 
feared." 

And  then  he  told  me  the  melancholy  story  of 
his  own  persecution  and  suffering  after  the  strike. 
His  job  was  gone  and  his  name  was  on  the  black- 
list. Five  jobs  he  secured  under  assumed  names 
were  lost  to  him  as  soon  as  he  was  found  out. 


14  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

Poverty  began  to  harass  him.  He  picked  up  odd 
jobs  and  when  he  managed  to  get  a  dollar  ahead 
he  sent  it  to  his  family.  His  aged  mother  died  of 
privation  and  worry  and  his  wife  soon  followed 
her  to  the  grave.  Two  boys  were  left,  but  what- 
ever became  of  them  and  whether  they  are  now 
alive  or  dead,  he  could  never  learn. 

The  old  fellow  grew  serious  and  a  melancholy 
sigh  escaped  him.  But  he  was  not  bitter.  He  bore 
no  malice  toward  any  one.  He  had  suffered  much, 
but  he  had  kept  the  faith,  and  his  regrets  were  at 
least  free  from  reproach. 

He  was  a  broken  down  old  veteran  of  the  in- 
dustrial army.  He  had  paid  the  penalties  of  hia 
protest  against  privately  owned  industry  and  the 
slavery  of  his  class,  and  now  in  his  old  age  he  was 
shuffling  along  in  his  rags  toward  a  nameless 
grave  in  the  pottersfield. 

Had  he  been  an  obedient  corporation  lackey ;  had 
he  scabbed  on  his  f ellow- workers ;  had  he  been 
mean  and  selfish  and  cold-blooded,  he  would  have 
been  promoted  instead  of  blacklisted  by  the  cor- 
poration and  honored  instead  of  hounded  by  so- 
ciety. His  manhood  and  self-respect  cost  him  dear- 
ly, but  he  paid  the  price  to  the  last  farthing.  Hia 
right  to  work  and  live,  his  home,  his  family  and 
his  friends  were  all  swept  away  because  he  refused 
to  scab  on  his  fellowmen. 

The  old  umbrella  mender  stood  before  me  proud 
and  erect  and  looked  me  straight  in  the  eyes  as 
he  finished  his  pathetic  story. 

The  shabby  clothes  he  wore  were  to  him  capi- 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  15 

talist  society's  reward  of  manhood  and  badge  of 
honor. 

There  was  something  peculiarly  grand  about  the 
scarred  old  veteran  of  the  industrial  battlefield. 
His  shabbiness  was  all  on  the  outside,  and  he 
seemed  transfigured  to  me  and  clad  in  garments 
of  glory.  He  loomed  before  me  like  a  forest-mon- 
arch the  tempests  had  riven  and  denuded  of  its 
foliage  but  could  not  lay  low. 

He  had  kept  the  faith  and  had  never  scabbed! 


THE  SECRET  OF  EFFICIENT  EXPRESSION. 

Coming   Nation,    July   8,    1911. 

The  following  was  written  for  the  Depart- 
ment of  Education  of  the  University  of  Wis- 
consin, under  whose  direction  there  is  being 
conducted  an  investigation  of  the  subject  of 
"Distinguished  Contemporary  Orators  or  Lec- 
turers— With  special  reference  to  fertility  and 
efficiency  of  expression.  What  is  the  key  to 
their  ability  as  masters  of  language?  What 
school  subjects,  or  what  kinds  of  training 
have  entered  into  their  lives  that  have  given 
them  power  to  express  themselves  effectively  ?" 

The  secret  of  efficient  expression  in  oratory — if 
secret  it  can  properly  be  called — is  in  having  some- 
thing efficient  to  express  and  being  so  filled  with  it 


16  LABOR   AND   FEEEDOM. 

that  it  expresses  itself.  The  choice  of  words  is  not 
important  since  efficient  expression,  the  result  of 
efficient  thinking,  chooses  its  own  words,  moulds 
and  fashions  its  own  sentences,  and  creates  a  dic- 
tion suited  to  its  own  purposes. 

In  my  own  case  the  power  of  expression  is  not 
due  to  education  or  to  training.  I  had  no  time  for 
either  and  have  often  felt  the  lack  of  both.  The 
schools  I  attended  were  primitive  and  when  I  left 
them  at  fourteen  to  go  to  work  I  could  hardly  write 
a  grammatical  sentence ;  and  to  be  frank  I  am  not 
quite  sure  that  I  can  do  so  now.  But  I  had  a  re- 
tentive memory  and  was  fond  of  committing  and 
declaiming  such  orations  and  poems  as  appealed  to 
me.  Patrick  Henry's  revolutionary  speech  had  first 
place.  Robert  Emmet's  immortal  oration  was  a 
great  favorite  and  moved  me  deeply.  Drake's 
"American  Flag"  stirred  my  blood  as  did  also  Schil- 
ler's "Burgschaft."  Often  I  felt  myself  thrilled  un- 
der the  spell  of  these,  recited  to  myself,  inaudibly 
at  times,  and  at  others  declaimed  boldly  and  dra- 
matically, when  no  one  else  was  listening. 

Everything  that  was  revolutionary  appealed  to 
me  and  it  was  this  that  made  Patrick  Henry  one  of 
my  first  heroes;  and  my  passion  for  his  eloquent 
and  burning  defiance  of  King  George  inspired  the 
first  speech  I  ever  attempted  in  public,  with  Patrick 
himself  as  the  theme.  This  was  before  the  Occi- 
dental Literary  Club  of  Terre  Haute,  Ind.,  of  which 
I  was  then  a  member,  and  I  still  shudder  as  I  recall 
the  crowded  little  club-room  which  greeted  me,  and 
feel  again  the  big  drops  of  cold  sweat  standing  out 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  17 

all  over  me  as  I  realized  the  plight  I  was  in  and  the 
utter  hopelessness  of  escape. 

The  spectacle  I  made  of  myself  that  evening  will 
never  be  effaced  from  my  memory,  and  the  sympa- 
thetic assurances  of  my  friends  at  the  close  of  the 
exhibition  did  not  relieve  the  keen  sense  of  hu- 
miliation and  shame  I  felt  for  the  disgrace  I  had 
brought  upon  myself  and  my  patron  saint.  The 
speech  could  not  possibly  have  been  worse  and  my 
mortification  was  complete.  In  my  heart  I  hoped 
most  earnestly  that  my  hero's  spiritual  ears  were 
not  attuned  to  the  affairs  of  this  earth,  at  least 
that  evening. 

It  was  then  I  realized  and  sorely  felt  the  need 
of  the  education  and  training  I  had  missed  and 
then  and  there  I  resolved  to  make  up  for  it  as  best 
I  could.  I  set  to  work  in  earnest  to  learn  what  1 
so  much  needed  to  know.  While  firing  a  switch- 
engine  at  night  I  attended  a  private  school  half  a 
day  each  day,  sleeping  in  the  morning  and  attend- 
ing school  in  the  afternoon.  I  bought  an  encyclo- 
pedia on  the  installment  plan,  one  volume  each 
month,  and  began  to  read  and  study  history  and 
literature  and  to  devote  myself  to  grammar  and 
composition. 

The  revolutionary  history  of  the  United  States 
and  France  stirred  me  deeply  and  its  heroes  and 
martyrs  became  my  idols.  Thomas  Paine  towered 
above  them  all.  A  thousand  times  since  then  I  have 
found  inspiration  and  strength  in  the  thrilling 
words,  "These  are  the  times  that  try  men's  souls." 

Here  I  should  say,  for  the  purpose  of  this  writ- 


18  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

ing,  that  from  the  time  I  began  to  read  with  a 
serious  mind,  feeling  keenly  as  I  did  my  lack  of 
knowledge,  especially  the  power  of  proper  expres- 
sion, both  oral  and  written,  I  observed  the  structure 
and  studied  the  composition  of  every  paragraph  and 
every  sentence,  and  when  one  appeared  striking  to 
me,  owing  to  its  perfection  of  style  or  phrasing,  I 
read  it  a  second  time  or  perhaps  committed  it  to 
memory,  and  this  became  a  fixed  habit  which  I 
retain  to  this  day,  and  if  I  have  any  unusual  com- 
mand of  language  it  is  because  I  have  made  it  a 
life-long  practice  to  cultivate  the  art  of  expression 
in  a  sub-conscious  study  of  the  structure  and  phras- 
ing of  every  paragraph  in  my  readings. 

It  was  while  serving  an  apprenticeship  in  a  rail- 
road shop  and  in  later  years  as  a  locomotive  fire- 
man and  as  a  wage  worker  in  other  capacities  that 
I  came  to  realize  the  oppressions  and  sufferings  of 
the  working  class  and  to  understand  something  of 
the  labor  question.  The  wrongs  existing  here  I 
knew  from  having  experienced  them,  and  the  irre- 
sistible appeal  of  these  wrongs  to  be  righted  deter- 
mined my  destiny.  I  joined  a  labor  union  and 
from  that  time  to  this  the  high  ambition,  the  con- 
trolling purpose  of  my  life  has  been  the  education, 
organization  and  emancipation  of  the  working 
class.  It  was  this  passionate  sympathy  with  my 
class  that  gave  me  all  the  power  I  have  to  serve  it. 
~i  felt  their  suffering  because  I  was  one  of  thew 
and  I  began  to  speak  and  write  for  them  for  the 
same  reason.  In  this  there  was  no  altruism,  no 
self-sacrifice,  only  duty.  I  could  not  have  done 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  19 

otherwise.  Had  I  attempted  it  I  should  have 
failed.  Such  as  I  have  been  and  am,  I  had  to  be. 

I  abhorred  slavery  in  every  form.  I  yearned  to 
see  all  men  and  all  women  free.  I  detested  the 
idea  of  some  men  being  ruled  by  others,  and  of 
women  being  ruled  by  men.  I  believed  that  women 
should  have  all  the  rights  men  have,  and  I  looked 
upon  child  labor  as  a  crime.  And  so  I  became  an 
agitator  and  this  ruling  passion  of  my  life  found 
larger  expression. 

In  the  clash  of  conflict  which  followed  and  the 
trials  incident  to  it  I  grew  stronger.  The  notoriety 
which  came  in  consequence  enlarged  my  hearing 
with  the  people  and  this  in  turn  demanded  more 
efficient  means  of  expression.  The  cause  that  was 
sacred  to  me  was  assailed.  My  very  life  and  honor 
were  on  trial.  Falsehood  and  calumny  played  their 
part.  I  was  denounced  and  vilified.  Everything 
was  at  stake.  I  simply  had  to  speak  and  make  the 
people  understand,  and  that  is  how  I  got  my  train- 
ing in  oratory,  and  all  the  secret  there  is  in  what- 
ever power  of  expression  I  may  have. 

In  reading  the  history  of  slavery  I  studied  the 
character  of  John  Brown  and  he  became  my  hero. 
I  read  the  speeches  of  Wendell  Phillips  and  was 
profoundly  stirred  by  his  marvelous  powers.  Once 
I  heard  him  and  was  enthralled  by  his  indescribable 
eloquence.  He  was  far  advanced  in  years,  but  I 
could  see  in  his  commanding  presence  and  mellow 
and  subdued  tones  how  he  must  have  blazed  and 
flashed  in  the  meridian  of  his  powers. 

At  about  the  same  time  I  first  heard  Robert  G. 


20  LABOR   AND    FREEDOM. 

Ingersoll.  He  was  in  my  opinion  the  perfect  mas- 
ter of  the  art  of  human  speech.  He  combined  all 
the  graces,  gifts  and  powers  of  expression,  and 
stood  upon  the  highest  pinnacle  of  oratorical 
achievement. 

Robert  G.  Ingersoll  and  Wendell  Phillips  were 
the  two  greatest  orators  of  their  time,  and  proba- 
bly of  all  time.  Their  power  sprang  from  their 
passion  for  freedom,  for  truth,  for  justice,  for  a 
world  filled  with  light  and  with  happy  human  be- 
ings. But  for  this  divine  passion  neither  would 
have  scaled  the  sublime  heights  of  immortal 
achievement.  The  sacred  fire  burned  within  them 
and  when  they  were  aroused  it  flashed  from  their 
eyes  and  rolled  from  their  inspired  lips  in  torrents 
of  eloquence. 

No  man  ever  made  a  great  speech  on  a  mean 
subject.  Slavery  never  inspired  an  immortal 
thought  or  utterance.  Selfishness  is  dead  to  every 
art.  The  love  of  truth  and  the  passion  to  serve  it 
light  every  torch  of  real  eloquence. 

Had  Ingersoll  and  Phillips  devoted  their  lives  to 
the  practice  of  law  for  pay  the  divine  fire  within 
them  would  have  burned  to  ashes  and  they  would 
have  died  in  mediocrity. 

The  highest  there  is  in  oratory  is  the  highest 
there  is  in  truth,  in  honesty,  in  morality.  All  the 
virtues  combine  in  expressing  themselves  in  beau- 
tiful words,  poetic  phrases,  glowing  periods,  and 
moving  eloquence. 

The  loftiest  peaks  rise  from  the  lowest  depths 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  21 

and  their  shining  summits  glorify  their  hidden 
foundations. 

The  highest  eloquence  springs  from  the  lowliest 
sources  and  pleads  trumpet-tongued  for  the  chil- 
dren of  the  abyss. 

Wendell  Phillips  was  inspired  by  the  scarred 
back,  the  pleading  eyes,  and  the  mute  lips  of  chat- 
tel slavery  and  his  tongue,  eloquent  with  the  light- 
ning of  Jehovah's  wrath,  became  an  avenging  flame 
to  scourge  the  horror  of  slavery  from  the  earth. 

Denial  of  one's  better  self  seals  the  lips  or  pol- 
lutes them.  Fidelity  to  conviction  opens  them  and 
truth  blossoms  in  eloquence. 

The  tongue  is  tipped  with  the  flame  that  leaps 
from  the  altar-fire  of  the  soul. 

Ingersoll  and  Phillips  were  absolutely  true  to 
their  convictions.  They  attacked  monstrous  evils 
and  were  hated  and  denounced.  Had  they  yielded 
to  the  furies  which  assailed  them  they  would  have 
perished.  But  the  fiercer  the  attacks  upon  them 
the  stauncher  they  stood  and  the  more  eloquent  and 
powerful  they  became.  The  truth  fired  their  souls, 
flashed  from  their  eyes,  and  inspired  their  lips. 

There  is  no  inspiration  in  evil  and  no  power 
except  for  its  own  destruction. 

He  who  aspires  to  master  the  art  of  expression 
must  first  of  all  consecrate  himself  completely  to 
some  great  cause,  and  the  greatest  cause  of  all  is 
the  cause  of  humanity.  He  must  learn  to  feel 
deeply  and  think  clearly  to  express  himself  elo- 
quently. He  must  be  absolutely  true  to  the  best 
there  is  in  him,  if  he  has  to  stand  alone. 


22  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

Such  natural  powers  as  he  may  have  should  be 
cultivated  by  the  study  of  history,  science  and  lit- 
terature.  He  must  not  only  keep  close  to  the  peo- 
ple but  remember  that  he  is  one  of  them,  and  not 
above  the  meanest.  He  must  feel  the  wrongs  of 
others  so  keenly  that  he  forgets  his  own,  and  re- 
solve to  combat  these  wrongs  with  all  the  power  at 
his  command. 

The  most  thrilling  and  inspiring  oratory,  the 
most  powerful  and  impressive  eloquence  is  the  voice 
of  the  disinherited,  the  oppressed,  the  suffering  and 
submerged;  it  is  the  voice  of  poverty  and  misery, 
of  rags  and  crusts,  of  wretchedness  and  despair; 
the  voice  of  humanity  crying  to  the  infinite;  the 
voice  that  resounds  throughout  the  earth  and 
reaches  heaven;  the  voice  that  awakens  the  con- 
science of  the  race  and  proclaims  the  truths  that 
fill  the  world  with  light  and  liberty  and  love. 


JESUS,    THE    SUPREME    LEADER. 

Coming  Nation    (Formerly   Progressive   Woman),   March,   1914. 

It  matters  little  whether  Jesus  was  born  at  Naz- 
areth or  Bethlehem.  The  accounts  conflict,  but  the 
point  is  of  no  consequence. 

It  is  of  consequence,  however,  that  He  was  born 
in  a  stable  and  cradled  in  a  manger.  This  fact  of 
itself,  about  which  there  is  no  question,  certifies 
conclusively  the  proletarian  character  of  Jesus 


LABOB   AND    FREEDOM.  23 

Christ.  Had  His  parents  been  other  than  poor 
working  people — money-changers,  usurers,  mer- 
chants, lawyers,  scribes,  priests  or  other  parasites — 
He  would  not  have  been  delivered  from  His 
mother's,  womb  on  a  bed  of  straw  in  a  stable 
among  asses  and  other  animals. 

Was  Jesus  divinely  begotten?  Yes,  the  same  as 
every  other  babe  ever  born  into  the  world.  He  was 
of  miraculous  origin  the  same  as  all  the  rest  of 
mankind.  The  scriptural  account  of  his  "immacu- 
late conception"  is  a  beautiful  myth,  but  scarcely 
more  of  a  miracle  than  the  conception  of  all  other 
babes. 

Jesus  was  not  divine  because  he  was  less  human 
than  his  fellowmen  but  for  the  opposite  reason  that 
he  was  supremely  human,  and  it  is  this  of  which 
his  divinity  consists,  the  fullness  and  perfection  of 
him  as  an  intellectual,  moral  and  spiritual  human 
being. 

The  chronicles  of  his  time  and  of  later  days  are 
filled  with  contradictory  and  absurd  stories  about 
him  and  he  has  been  disfigured  and  distorted  by 
cunning  priests  to  serve  their  knavish  ends  and  by 
ignorant  idolaters  to  give  godly  sanction  to  their 
blind  bigotry  and  savage  superstition,  but  there  is 
no  impenetrable  myth  surrounding  the  personality 
of  Jesus  Christ.  He  was  not  a  legendary  being  or 
an  allegorical  figure,  but  as  Bouck  White  and  others 
have  shown  us,  a  flesh  and  blood  Man  in  the  ful- 
ness of  his  matchless  powers  and  the  completeness 
of  his  transcendent  consecration. 

To  me  Jesus  Christ  is  as  real,  as  palpitant  and 


24  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

pervasive  as  a  historic  character  as  John  Brown, 
Abraham  Lincoln  or  Karl  Marx.  He  has  persisted 
in  spite  of  two  thousand  years  of  theological  emas- 
culation to  destroy  his  revolutionary  personality, 
and  is  today  the  greatest  moral  force  in  the  world. 

The  vain  attempt  persisted  in  through  twenty 
centuries  of  ruling  class  interpolation,  interpreta- 
tion and  falsification  to  make  Jesus  appear  the 
divinely  commissioned  conservator  of  the  peace  and 
soother  of  the  oppressed,  instead  of  the  master 
proletarian  revolutionist  and  sower  of  the  social 
whirlwind — the  vain  attempt  to  prostitute  the 
name  and  teachings  and  example  of  the  martyred 
Christ  to  the  power  of  Mammon,  the  very  power 
which  had  murdered  him  in  cold  blood,  vindicates 
his  transcendent  genius  and  proclaims  the  immor- 
tality of  his  work. 

Nothing  is  known  of  Jesus  Christ  as  a  lad  except 
that  at  twelve  his  parents  took  him  to  Jerusalem, 
where  he  confounded  the  learned  doctors  by  the 
questions  he  asked  them.  We  have  no  knowledge 
as  to  what  these  questions  were,  but  taking  his 
lowly  birth,  his  poverty  and  suffering  into  account, 
in  contrast  with  the  riches  of  Jerusalem  which  now 
dazzled  bis  vision,  and  in  the  light  of  his  subsequent 
career  we  are  not  left  to  conjecture  as  to  the 
nature  of  the  interrogation  to  which  the  inquisitive 
lad  subjected  the  smug  doctors  in  the  temple. 

There  are  but  meagre  accounts  of  the  doings  of 
Jesus  until  at  a  trifle  over  thirty  he  entered  upon 
his  public  "ministry^'  and  began  the  campaign  of 
agitation  and  revolt  he  had  been  planning  and 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  25 

dreaming  through  all  the  years  of  his  yearning 
and  burning  adolescence.  He  was  of  the  working 
class  and  loyal  to  it  in  every  drop  of  his  hot  blood 
to  the  very  hour  of  his  death.  He  hated  and  de- 
nounced the  rich  and  cruel  exploiter  as  passion- 
ately as  he  loved  and  sympathized  with  his  poor  and 
suffering  victims. 

"I  speak  not  of  you  all;  I  know  whom  I  have 
chosen/'  was  his  class-conscious  announcement  to 
his  disciples,  all  of  whom  were  of  the  proletariat, 
not  an  exploiter  or  desirable  citizen  among  them. 
No,  not  one !  It  was  a  working  class  movement  he 
was  organizing  and  a  working  class  revolution  he 
was  preparing  the  way  for. 

"A  new  commandment  I  give  unto  you :  That  ye 
love  one  another;  as  I  have  loved  you,  that  ye  also 
love  one  another/'  This  was  the  pith  and  core  of 
all  his  pleading,  all  his  preaching,  and  all  his  teach- 
ing— love  one  another,  be  brethren,  make  common 
cause,  stand  together,  ye  who  labor  to  enrich  the 
parasites  and  are  yourselves  in  chains,  and  ye  shall 
be  free ! 

These  words  were  addressed  by  Jesus  not  to  the 
money-changers,  the  scribes  and  pharisees,  the  rich 
and  respectable,  but  to  the  ragged  undesirables  of 
his  own  enslaved  and  suffering  class.  This  appeal 
was  to  their  class  spirit,  their  class  loyalty  and 
their  class  solidarity. 

Centuries  later  Karl  Marx  embodies  the  appeal  in 
his  famous  manifesto  and  today  it  blazes  forth  in 
letters  of  fire  as  the  watchword  of  the  world-wide 
revolution :  "Workers  of  all  countries  unite :  you 


26  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

have  nothing  to  lose  but  your  chains.  You  have  a 
world  to  gain." 

During  the  brief  span  of  three  years,  embracing 
the  whole  period  of  his  active  life,  from  the  time 
he  began  to  stir  up  the  people  until  "the  scarlet 
robe  and  crown  of  thorns  were  put  on  him  and  he 
was  crucified  between  two  thieves/'  Jesus  devoted 
all  his  time  and  all  his  matchless  ability  and  ener- 
gies to  the  suffering  poor,  and  it  would  have  been 
passing  strange  if  they  had  not  "heard  him  gladly." 

He  himself  had  no  fixed  abode  and  like  the 
wretched,  motley  throng  to  whom  he  preached  and 
poured  out  his  great  and  loving  heart,  he  was  a 
poor  wanderer  on  the  face  of  the  earth  and  "had  not 
where  to  lay  his  head." 

Pure  communism  was  the  economic  and  social 
gospel  preached  by  Jesus  Christ,  and  every  act  and 
utterance  which  may  properly  be  ascribed  to  him 
conclusively  affirms  it.  Private  property  was  to  his 
elevated  mind  and  exalted  soul  a  sacrilege  and  a 
horror;  an  insult  to  God  and  a  crime  against  man. 

The  economic  basis  of  his  doctrine  of  brother- 
hood and  love  is  clearly  demonstrated  in  the  fact 
that  under  his  leadership  and  teaching  all  his  dis- 
ciples "sold  their  possessions  and  goods,  and  parted 
them  to  all  men,  as  every  man  had  nxed."  and  that 
they  "had  all  things  in  common." 

"And  they,  continuing  daily  with  one  accord  in 
the  temple,  and  breaking  bread  from  house  to 
liouse,  did  eat  their  meat  with  gladness  and  single- 
ness of  heart." 

This  was  the  beginning  of  the  mighty  movement 


LABOR    AND    FREEDOM.  2< 

Jesus  had  launched  for  the  overthrow  of  the  empire 
of  the  Caesars  and  the  emancipation  of  the  crushed 
and  miserable  masses  from  the  bestial  misrule  of 
the  Eoman  tyrants. 

It  was  above  all  a  working  class  movement  and 
was  conceived  and  brought  forth  for  no  other  pur- 
pose than  to  destroy  class  rule  and  set  up  the  com- 
mon people  as  the  sole  and  rightful  inheritors  of 
the  earth. 

"Happy  are  the  lowly  for  they  shall  inherit  the 
earth." 

Three  short  years  of  agitation  by  the  incompar- 
able Jesus  was  sufficient  to  stamp  the  proletarian 
movement  he  had  inaugurated  as  the  most  formid- 
able and  portentous  revolution  in  the  annals  of 
time.  The  ill-fated  author  could  not  long  survive 
his  stupendous  mischief.  The  aim  and  inevitable 
outcome  of  this  madman's  teaching  and  agitation 
was  too  clearly  manifest  to  longer  admit  of  doubt. 

The  sodden  lords  of  misrule  trembled  in  their 
stolen  finery,  and  then  the  word  went  forth  that 
they  must  "get"  the  vagabond  who  had  stirred  up 
the  people  against  them.  The  prototypes  of  Pea- 
body,  McPartland,  Harry  Orchard,  et.  al.,  were  all 
ready  for  their  base  and  treacherous  performance 
and  their  thirty  pieces  of  blood-stained  silver.  The 
priest  of  the  Mammon  worshipers  gave  it  out  that 
the  Nazarene  was  spreading  a  false  religion  and 
that  his  pernicious  teachings  would  corrupt  the  peo- 
ple, destroy  the  church,  uproot  the  old  faith,  dis- 
rupt the  family,  break  up  the  home,  and  overthrow 
society. 


28  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

The  lineal  descendants  of  Caiaphas  and  Judas 
and  the  pharisees  and  money-changers  of  old  are 
still  parroting  the  same  miserable  falsehood  to  serve 
the  same  miserable  ends,  the  only  difference  being 
that  the  brood  of  pious  perverts  now  practice  their 
degeneracy  in  the  name  of  the  Christ  they  betrayed 
and  sold  into  crucifixion  twenty  centuries  ago. 

Jesus,  after  the  most  farcical  trial  and  the  most 
shocking  travesty  upon  justice,  was  spiked  to  the 
cross  at  the  gates  of  Jerusalem  and  his  followers 
subjected  to  persecution,  torture,  exile  and  death. 
The  movement  he  had  inaugurated,  fired  by  his 
unconquerable  revolutionary  spirit,  persisted,  how- 
ever, through  fire  and  slaughter,  for  three  centuries 
and  until  the  master  class,  realizing  the  futility  of 
their  efforts  to  stamp  it  out,  basely  betrayed  it  by 
pretending  conversion  to  its  teachings  and  rever- 
ence for  its  murdered  founder,  and  from  that  time 
forth  Christianity  became  the  religion,  so-called,  of 
the  pagan  ruling  class  and  the  dead  Christ  was 
metamorphosed  from  the  master  revolutionist  who 
was  ignominiously  slain,  a  martyr  to  his  class,  into 
the  pious  abstraction,  the  harmless  theological  di- 
vinity who  died  that  John  Pierpont  Morgan  could 
be  "washed  in  the  blood  of  the  lamb"  and  countless 
generations  of  betrayed  and  deluded  slaves  kept 
blinded  by  superstition  and  content  in  their  pov- 
erty and  degradation. 

Jesus  was  the  grandest  and  loftiest  of  human 
souls — sun-crowned  and  God-inspired;  a  full-stat- 
ured  man,  red-blooded  and  lion-hearted,  yet  sweet 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  29 

and  g«ntle  as  the  noble  mother  who  liad  given  him 
birth. 

He  had  the  majesty  and  poise  of  a  god,  the  pro- 
phetic vision  of  a  seer,  the  great,  loving  heart  of  a 
woman,  and  the  unaffected  innocence  and  simplicity 
of  a  child. 

This  was  and  is  the  martyred  Christ  of  the  work- 
ing class,  the  inspired  evangel  of  the  downtrodden 
masses,  the  world's  supreme  revolutionary  leader, 
whose  love  for  the  poor  and  the  children  of  the 
poor  hallowed  all  the  days  of  his  consecrated  life, 
lighted  up  and  made  forever  holy  the  dark  tragedy 
of  his  death,  and  gave  to  the  ages  his  divine  inspir- 
ation and  his  deathless  name. 


SUSAN  B.  ANTHONY:   A  REMINISCENCE 

Socialist   Woman,   January,   1909. 

Twice  only  did  I  personally  meet  Susan  B. 
Anthony,  although  I  knew  her  well.  The  first 
time  was  at  Terre  Haute,  Indiana,  my  home,  in 
1880,  and  the  last  time  shortly  before  her  death 
at  her  home  at  Rochester,  New  York.  I  can 
never  forget  the  first  time  I  met  her.  She  im- 
pressed me  as  being  a  wonderfully  strong  charac- 
ter, self-reliant,  thoroughly  in  earnest,  and  utterly 
indifferent  to  criticism. 

There  was  never  a  time  in  my  life  when  I  was 
opposed  to  the  equal  suffrage  of  the  sexes.  I  could 


30  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

never  understand  why  woman  was  denied  any  right 
or  opportunity  that  man  enjoyed.  Quite  early, 
therefore,  I  was  attracted  to  the  woman  suffrage 
movement.  I  had  of  course  read  of  Susan  B. 
Anthony  and  from  the  ridicule  and  contempt  with 
which  she  was  treated  I  concluded  that  she  must 
be  a  strong  advocate  of,  and  doing  effective  work 
for,  the  rights  of  her  sex.  It  was  then  that  I  de- 
termined, with  the  aid  of  Mrs.  Ida  Husted  Harper, 
the  brilliant  writer,  who  afterward  became  her 
biographer,  to  arrange  a  series  of  meetings  for 
Miss  Anthony  at  Terre  Haute. 

In  due  course  of  time  I  received  a  telegram 
from  Miss  Anthony  from  Lafayette  announcing 
the  time  of  her  arrival  at  Terre  Haute  and  asking 
me  to  meet  her  at  the  station.  I  recognized  the 
distinguished  lady  or,  to  be  more  exact,  the  no- 
torious woman,  the  instant  she  stepped  from  the 
train.  She  was  accompanied  by  Lily  Devereaux 
Blake  and  other  woman  suffrage  agitators  and  I 
proceeded  to  escort  them  to  the  hotel  where  I  had 
arranged  for  their  reception. 

I  can  still  see  the  aversion  so  unfeelingly  ex- 
pressed for  this  magnificent  woman.  Even  my 
friends  were  disgusted  with  me  for  piloting  such 
an  "undesirable  citizen"  into  the  community.  It 
is  hard  to  understand,  after  all  these  years,  how 
bitter  and  implacable  the  people  were,  especially 
the  women,  toward  the  leaders  of  this  movement. 

As  we  walked  along  the  street  I  was  painfully 
aware  that  Miss  Anthony  was  an  object  of  derision 
and  contempt,  and  in  my  heart  I  resented  it  and 


LABOR   AND   FREEDOM.  31 

later  I  had  often  to  defend  my  position,,  which,  of 
course,  I  was  ever  ready  to  do. 

The  meetings  of  Miss  Anthony  and  her  co- 
workers  were  but  poorly  attended  and  all  but  bar- 
ren of  results.  Such  was  the  loathing  of  the  com- 
munity for  a  woman  who  dared  to  talk  in  public 
about  "woman's  rights"  that  people  would  not  go 
to  see  her  even  to  satisfy  their  curiosity.  She 
was  simply  not  to  be  tolerated  and  it  would  not 
have  required  any  great  amount  of  egging-on  to 
have  excited  the  people  to  drive  her  from  the  com- 
munity. 

To  all  of  this  Miss  Anthony,  to  all  appearance, 
was  entirely  oblivious.  She  could  not  have  helped 
noticing  it  for  there  were  those  who  thrust  their 
insults  upon  her  but  she  gave  no  sign  and  bore 
no  resentment. 

I  can  see  her  still  as  she  walked  along,  neatly 
but  carelessly  attired,  her  bonnet  somewhat  awry, 
mere  trifles  which  were  scarcely  noticed,  if  at 
all,  in  the  presence  of  her  splendid  womanhood. 
She  seemed  absorbed  completely  in  her  mission. 
She  could  scarcely  speak  of  anything  else.  The 
rights  and  wrongs  of  her  sex  seemed  to  completely 
possess  her  and  to  dominate  all  her  thoughts  and 
acts. 

On  the  platform  she  spoke  with  characteristic 
earnestness  and  at  times  with  such  intensity  as 
to  awe  her  audience,  if  not  compel  conviction.  She 
had  an  inexhaustible  fund  of  information  in  re- 
gard to  current  affairs,  and  dates  and  data  for 
all  things.  She  spoke  with  great  rapidity  and 


32  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

forcef illness ;  her  command  of  language  was  re- 
markable and  her  periods  were  all  well-rounded 
and  eloquently  delivered.  No  thoughtful  person 
could  hear  her  without  being  convinced  of  her 
honesty  and  the  purity  of  her  motive.  Her  face 
fairly  glowed  with  the  spirit  of  her  message  and 
her  soul  was  in  her  speech. 

But  the  superb  quality,  the  crowning  virtue  she 
possessed,  was  her  moral  heroism. 

Susan  B.  Anthony  had  this  quality  in  an  emi- 
nent degree.  She  fearlessly  faced  the  ignorant 
multitude  or  walked  unafraid  among  those  who 
scorned  her.  She  had  the  dignity  of  perfect  self- 
reliance  without  a  shadow  of  conceit  to  mar  it. 
She  was  a  stern  character,  an  uncompromising  per- 
sonality, but  she  had  the  heart  of  a  woman  and 
none  more  tender  ever  throbbed  for  the  weak 
and  the  oppressed  of  earth. 

No  leader  of  any  crusade  was  ever  more  fear- 
less, loyal  or  uncompromising  than  Susan  B.  An- 
thony and  not  one  ever  wrought  more  unselfishly 
or  under  greater  difficulties  for  the  good  of  her 
kind  and  for  the  progress  of  the  race. 

I  did  not  see  Miss  Anthony  again  until  I  shook 
hands  with  her  at  the  close  of  my  address  in 
Rochester,  but  a  short  time  before  she  passed  to 
other  realms.  She  was  the  same  magnificent  wom- 
an, but  her  locks  had  whitened  and  her  kindly 
features  bore  the  traces  of  age  and  infirmity. 

Her  life-work  was  done  and  her  sun  was  set- 
ting ! 


LABOR   AND   FREEDOM.  33 

How  beautiful  she  seemed  in  the  quiet  serenity 
of  her  sunset ! 

Twenty-five  years  before  she  drank  to  its  dregs 
the  bitter  cup  of  persecution,  but  now  she  stood 
upon  the  heights,  a  sad  smile  lighting  her  sweet 
face,  amidst  the  acclaims  of  her  neighbors  and  the 
plaudits  of  the  world. 

Susan  B.  Anthony  freely  consecrated  herself 
to  the  service  of  humanity;  she  was  a  heroine  in 
the  highest  sense  and  her  name  deserves  a  place 
among  the  highest  on  the  scroll  of  the  immortals. 


LOUIS  TIKAS— LUDLOW'S  HERO  AND 
MARTYR. 

Appeal    to    Reason,    September   4,    1915. 

"And  now  that  the  cloud  settled  upon  Saint  Antoine 
which  a  momentary  gleam  had  driven  from  his  sacred 
countenance,  the  darkness  of  it  was  heavy — cold,  dirt, 
sickness,  ignorance  and  want,  were  the  lords  in  waiting 
on  the  saintly  presence — nobles  of  great  power  all  of 
them;  but  most  especially  the  last.  Samples  of  a  people 
that  had  undergone  a  terrible  grinding  and  regrinding  in 
the  mill,  and  certainly  not  in  the  fabulous  mill  which 
ground  old  people  young,  shivered  at  every  corner.  .  .  . 
The  mill  which  had  worked  them  down  was  the  mill  that 
grinds  young  people  old;  the  children  had  ancient  faces 
and  grave  voices;  and  upon  them,  and  upon  the  grown 
faces,  and  plowed  into  every  furrow  of  age  and  coming 
up  afresh,  was  the  sign,  Hunger.  It  was  prevalent  every- 
where. Hunger  was  pushed  out  of  the  tall  houses,  in 
the  wretched  clothing  that  hung  upon  the  poles  and 
lines;  hunger  was  patched  into  them  with  straw  and  rags 
and  wood  and  paper;  hunger  was  repeated  in  every 
modicum  of  fire-wood  that  the  man  sawed  off;  hunger 
stared  down  from  the  smokeless  chimneys,  and  started 
up  from  the  filthy  street  that  had  no  offal,  among  its 
refuse,  of  anything  to  eat.  Hunger  was  the  inscription 
on  the  baker's  shelves,  written  in  every  small  loaf  of  his 
scanty  stock  of  bad  bread;  at  the  sausagre-shop,  in  every 


34  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

dead-dog  preparation  that  was  offered  for  sale.  Hunger 
rattled  its  dry  bones  among  the  roasting  chestnuts  in 
the  turned  cylinder;  hunger  was  shred  into  atoms  in 
every  farthing  of  husky  chips  of  potato,  fried  with  some 
reluctant  drops  of  oil. 

"Its  abiding  place  was  in  all  things  fitted  to  it.  A 
narrow  winding  street,  full  of  offense  and  stench,  with 
other  narrow  winding  streets  diverging,  all  peopled  by 
rags  and  nightcaps,  and  all  smelling  of  rags  and  night- 
caps, and  all  visible  things  with  a  brooding  look  upon 
them  that  looked  ill.  In  the  hunted  air  of  the  people 
there  was  yet  some  wild- beast  thought  of  the  possibility 
of  turning  at  bay.  Depressed  and  slinking  though  they 
were,  eyes  of  fire  were  not  wanting  among  them;  nor 
compressed  lips,  white  with  what  they  suppressed;  nor 
foreheads  knitted  into  the  likeness  of  the  gallows-rope 
they  mused  about  enduring  or  inflicting." — A  Tale  of  Two 
Cities. 


In  these  ghastly  colors  Charles  Dickens  painted 
the  picture  of  poverty  and  its  starving  victims  in 
France  on  the  eve  of  the  French  revolution,  and 
yet,  "every  wind  that  blew  over  France  shook  the 
rags  of  the  scarecrows  in  vain,  for  the  birds,  fine 
of  song  and  feather  took  no  warning."  Then  the 
storm  broke  and  the  pent-up  furies  were  unleashed ; 
the  day  of  reckoning  had  come  at  last  and  the 
crimes  of  the  centuries,  inflicted  without  mercy 
upon  the  long-suffering  people,  were  wiped  out  in 
the  hearts'  blood  of  their  aristocratic  and  profligate 
oppressors  and  despoilers. 

The  bloody  revolution  of  a  century  and  a  quarter 
ago  in  France  fills  uncounted  pages  in  the  world's 
history,  but  its  terrible  warning  to  the  lords  of  mis- 
rule and  despoilers  of  the  people  has  been  in  vain. 
Today  as  ever  the  greed  and  avarice  of  the  ruling 
class  blind  them  to  their  impending  fate  and  drive 
them  to  their  inevitable  doom. 

In  the  state  of  Colorado  in  "our  own  free  Amer- 
ica" the  conditions  that  make  for  savage  and  bloody 


LABOR   AND   FREEDOM.  35 

revolution  are  ripening  with  incredible  rapidity 
and  the  lurid  handwriting  of  fate  is  already  upon 
the  wall,  but  the  Rockefellers  and  their  capitalist 
cohorts,  stricken  blind  as  the  penalty  of  their  in- 
satiate greed,  are  unable  to  see  it. 

That  the  monstrous  crime  of  Ludlow,  the  fiend- 
ish destruction  of  the  tented  village,  the  wanton 
killing  of  the  homeless,  hunted,  hopeless  victims 
— half-clad,  famishing,  terror-stricken  and  defense- 
less— bludgeoned,  bullied,  shot  down  like  dogs,  and 
their  wives  and  suckling  babes  roasted  in  pits  be- 
fore their  eyes — that  this  appalling  massacre,  with- 
out a  parallel  in  history,  did  not  infuriate  the  suf- 
fering and  persecuted  victims  of  capitalism's  worse 
than  satanic  ferocity,  fire  their  blood  with  the  tiger- 
thirst  for  revenge,  and  drench  the  despotic  and 
shameless  state  with  blood  is  one  of  the  miracles 
of  patience  and  submissiveness  of  the  exploited, 
downtrodden,  suffering  masses. 

The  tragic  story  of  Ludlow,  the  hideous  night- 
mare of  the  infernal  regions  of  the  Rocky  (feller) 
Mountains — written  in  the  violated  wombs  of 
shrieking-  mothers  and  the  spattered  life-drops  of 
their  murdered  babes — has  yet  to  be  traced  on  his- 
tory's ineffaceable  pages.  The  blood  of  the  twenty- 
three  innocents  who  perished  there  will  be  the 
holy  fount  of  the  writer's  inspiration  whose  fire- 
tipped  pen  will  give  to  the  world  this  tragic  and 
thrilling  epic  of  the  embattled  miners  in  the  moun- 
tain ramparts  of  Rockefellerado. 

In  the  story  of  Ludlow,  Louis  Tikas,  the  in- 
trepid leader,  the  loyal  comrade,  the  noble-hearted 


36  LABOR  AND   FREEDOM. 

Greek  who  fell  the  victim  of  gunmen-brutes  in  mili- 
tary uniform  while  pleading  that  the  women  and 
children  be  spared,  takes  on  the  robes  of  deity  and 
joins  the  martyrs  and  heroes  of  history.  The  rifle- 
butt  that  crushed  his  noble  head  and  silenced  his 
brave  and  tender  heart  gave  his  soul  to  the  causo 
he  loved  and  his  name  to  the  ages. 

The  lion-hearted  Greek  is  at  rest,  but  the  cause 
he  lived  and  died  for  goes  on  forever ! 

Louis  Tikas  was  educated,  cultured  and  refined, 
a  graduate  of  the  University  of  Athens;  yea,  he 
was  more  than  that,  he  was  a  MAN!  His  heart 
was  true  as  his  brain  was  clear;  he  followed  the 
truth  and  he  loved  justice;  he  sided  with  the  weak 
and  ministered  to  the  suffering,  even  as  his  elder 
brother  had  in  the  days  when  other  pharisees  cruci- 
fied the  Son  of  Man  for  loving  his  despoiled  and 
despised  fellow-men. 

Loy,is  Tikas  made  Ludlow  holy  as  Jesus  Christ 
made  Calvary! 

He  was  the  loyal  leader  of  the  persecuted  colony ; 
the  trusted  keeper  of  the  tented  village.  He  was 
loved  by  every  man,  woman  and  child,  and  feared 
only  by  the  fanged  wolves  and  hyenas  that  threat- 
ened to  ravage  the  flock. 

Strong  as  a  giant  yet  gentle  as  a  child;  utterly 
fearless  yet  without  bravado,  this  great  and  loving 
soul  cast  his  lot  with  the  exiled  slaves  of  the  pits 
and  kept  his  vigil  over  the  defenseless  women  and 
children  of  the  village  as  a  loving  mother  might 
over  the  fledglings  of  her  brood. 

Is  it  strange  that  they  loved  him,  trusted  him, 


LABOR   AND   FREEDOM.  37 

and  that  in  the  hour  of  their  deadly  peril  they 
looked  to  him  to  shield  them  from  their  brutish 
ravishers  ? 

In  this  tragic  hour  Louis  Tikas  measured  up  to 
the  supreme  stature  of  his  noble  manhood.  He 
knew  his  time  had  come  and  with  a  smile  upon 
his  lips  and  without  a  tremor  in  his  sinews,  he 
faced  his  cruel  fate.  He  asked  no  quarter  for 
himself,  but  only  begged  that  mothers  and  babes 
be  spared;  and  with  this  touching  plea  upon  his 
lips  and  the  love  of  his  people  in  his  soul  and  beam- 
ing from  his  eyes,  he  was  struck  down  by  the  hired 
assassins  of  the  Arch-Pharisee  and  passed  to  mar- 
tyrdom and  immortality. 


THE   LITTLE  LORDS  OF  LOVE. 

Progressive  Woman,  December,  1910. 

The  children  are  to  me  a  perpetual  source  of 
wonder  and  delight.  How  keen  they  are,  how  alert, 
and  how  comprehending ! 

The  sweet  children  of  the  Socialist  movement — 
the  little  lords  of  light  and  love — keep  my  heart 
warm  and  my  purpose  true.  The  raggedest  and 
dirtiest  of  them  all  is  to  me  an  angel  of  light.  I 
have  seen  them,  the  proletarian  little  folks,  swarm- 
ing up  out  of  the  sub-cellars  and  down  from  the 
garrets  of  the  tenements  and  I  have  watched  them 
with  my  heart  filled  with  pity  and  my  eyes  over- 


38  LABOR    AND    FREEDOM. 

flowing  with  tears.  Their  very  glee  seemed  tragic 
beyond  words. 

Born  within  the  roar  of  the  ocean  their  tiny  feet 
are  never  kissed  by  the  eager  surf,  nor  their  wan 
cheeks  made  ruddy  by  the  vitalizing  breezes  of  the 
sea. 

Not  for  them — the  flotsam  and  jetsam  upon  the 
social  tides — are  the  rosy  hours  of  babyhood,  the 
sweet,  sweet  joys  of  childhood.  They  are  the  heirs 
of  the  social  filth  and  disease  of  capitalism  and 
death  marks  them  at  what  should  be  the  dewy  dawn 
of  birth,  and  they  wither  and  die — without  having 
been  born.  Their  cradle  is  their  coffin  and  their 
birth  robe  their  winding  sheet. 

The  Socialist  movement  is  the  first  in  all  history 
to  come  to  the  rescue  of  childhood  and  to  set  free 
the  millions  of  little  captives.  And  they  realize  it 
and  incarnate  the  very  spirit  of  the  movement  and 
shout  aloud  their  joy  as  it  marches  on  to  victory. 

The  little  revolutionists  in  Socialist  parades 
know  what  they  are  there  for,  and  in  our  audiences 
they  are  wide  awake  to  the  very  last  word.  They 
know,  too,  when  to  applaud,  and  the  speaker  whi, 
fails  to  enthuse  them  is  surely  lacking  in  some  vital 
element  of  his  speech. 

At  the  close  of  a  recent  meeting  in  a  western 
state  the  stage  was  crowded  with  eager  comrades 
shaking  hands  and  offering  congratulations.  My 
hand  was  suddenly  gripped  from  below.  I  glanced 
down  and  a  little  comrade  just  about  big  enough 
to  stand  alone  looked  straight  up  into  my  eyes  and 
said  with  all  the  frankness  and  sincerity  of  a  child : 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  39 

"That  was  a  great  speech  you  made  and  I  love  you ; 
keep  this  to  remember  me  by."  And  he  handed 
me  a  little  nickle-plated  whistle,  his  sole  tangible 
possession,  and  with  it  all  the  wealth  of  his  pure 
and  unpolluted  child-love,  which  filled  my  heart 
and  moved  me  to  tears. 

In  just  that  moment  that  tiny  proletaire  filled 
my  measure  to  overflowing  and  consecrated  me 
with  increased  strength  and  devotion  to  the  great 
movement  that  is  destined  to  rescue  the  countless 
millions  of  disinherited  babes  and  give  them  the 
earth  and  all  the  fulness  thereof  as  their  patrimony 
forever. 

The  sweetest,  tenderest,  most  pregnant  words  ut- 
tered by  the  proletaire  of  Galilee  were:  "Suffer 
little  children,  and  forbid  them  not,  to  come  unto 
me ;  for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 


THE  COPPOCK   BROTHERS:   HEROES   OF 
HARPER'S  FERRY. 

Appeal    to    Reason,    May    23,    1914. 

"O,   patience,  felon  of  the  hour! 

Over  thy  ghastly  gallows-tree 
Shall  climb  the  vine  of  Liberty, 

With  ripened  fruit  and  fragrant  flower." 

So  wrote  William  Dean  Howells,  then  a  rising 
young  poet  and  author  in  Columbus,  Ohio,  in 
November,  1859,  on  the  eve  of  John  Brown's  ex- 
ecution at  Charleston,  Va.  In  the  month  before. 
on  the  night  of  October  16th,  John  Brown,  at 


40  LABOR   AND    FREEDOM. 

the  head  of  twenty-one  men,  sixteen  of  whom  were 
white  and  five  black,  marched  on  Harper's  Ferry 
and  delivered  the  attack  that  sent  his  body  to  the 
gallows  and  his  soul  to  immortal  glory. 

The  heroic  blood  of  old  Brown  himself  flowed 
in  the  veins  of  all  his  twenty-one  intrepid  young 
followers.  There  was  not  a  coward  among  them. 
Three  of  them  were  Brown's  own  sons  and  two 
others  were  near  relatives. 

Brown  was  fifty-nine;  his  adjutant  general 
twenty-four.  All  his  followers  were  young  men, 
some  of  them  barely  of  age. 

When  Colonel  Eichard  J.  Hinton,  who  followed 
John  Brown  in  Kansas,  heard  of  the  intended  raid 
on  Harper's  Ferry,  he  said  to  Kagi,  the  stripling 
adjutant  general:"  "You'll  all  be  killed."  "Yes, 
I  know  it,  Hinton,"  was  the  ready  reply,  "but  the 
result  will  be  worth  the  sacrifice." 

Kagi  was  said  to  resemble  "a  divinity  student 
rather  than  a  warrior,"  and  when  taunted  by  an 
adversary,  he  answered,  "We  will  endure  the 
shadow  of  dishonor,  but  not  the  stain  of  guilt." 

"These  words  of  John  Henry  Kagi,"  wrote 
Hinton,  "expressed  the  spirit  of  John  Brown's  men 
and,  in  an  especial  sense,  the  character  of  the 
young  and  brilliant  man  who  fell  riddled  with  bul- 
iets  into  the  Shenandoah.  Thirty  miles  below,  the 
blood-tinged  stream  flowed  through  the  lands  of 
his  father's  family." 

Spartan  souls  were  these  who  inarched  on  Har- 
per's Ferry  that  fateful  night,  there  to  strike  a 
blow  at  the  cost  of  their  lives  that  was  destined  to 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  41 

make  Harper's  Ferry  more  famed  than  Waterloo 
— a  blow  that  was  to  emancipate  a  race  and  change 
abruptly  the  whole  current  of  American  history. 

''Down  the  still  road,  dim  white  in  the  moon- 
light, and  amid  the  chill  of  the  October  night, 
went  the  little  band,  silent  and  sober." 

The  twenty-one  young  heroes  who  followed  old 
Jo  1m  Brown  on  that  historic  night  were  of  the 
exalted  type  that  Emerson  described  :  "When  souls 
reach  a  certain  clearness  of  perception,  they  accept 
a  knowledge  and  motive  without  selfishness." 

It  is  related  that  when  Garibaldi  was  organizing 
his  army  of  liberation  in  Italy,  he  was  asked  what 
inducements  he  had  to  offer  to  new  recruits. 
Promptly  the  rebel  chieftain  answered:  "Poverty, 
hardships,  battles,  wounds,  and — victory !" 

That  was  all  Captain  Brown  had  to  offer  his 
devoted  followers,  with  crushing  defeat  instead  of 
victory  at  the  end,  and  yet  they  enlisted  with  a 
zeal  that  could  not  have  been  surpassed  if  the 
world's  most  coveted  prizes  had  been  their  prom- 
ised reward. 

Think  of  the  utter  abnegation,  unselfishness  and 
loftiness  of  purpose  of  that  valiant  little  band  who 
marched  deliberately  into  the  jaws  of  hell  that 
October  night  to  break  the  fetters  of  a  despised 
and  alien  race !  How  many  of  their  detractors  and 
persecutors  were  animated  by  motives  so  pure  and 
exalted  ? 

No  wonder  that  Victor  Hugo  protested  so  elo- 
quently, albeit  in  vain,  against  John  Brown's  ex- 
ecution. 'Think  of  a  republic,"  he  indignantly 


42  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

exclaimed,  "murdering  a  liberator !"  and  when  the 
bloody  deed  was  done  the  illustrious  Frenchman 
flung  back  the  prophetic  challenge:  "The  time 
will  come  when  your  John  Brown  will  be  greater 
than  your  George  Washington." 

Among  Brown's  men  in  the  attack  on  Harper's 
Ferry  there  were  two  Quaker  brothers,  Edwin  and 
Barclay  Coppock,  stalwart  young  abolitionists  from 
Iowa,  whose  unfaltering  devotion  to  the  cause,  he- 
roic self-sacrifice  and  tragic  death  constitute  one 
of  the  most  thrilling  and  inspiring  chapters  in 
American  history. 

Edwin,  the  elder  brother,  was  captured  with  his 
leader  and  shared  his  fate  on  the  gallows.  Barclay 
made  good  his  escape  with  Owen  Brown,  to  be 
killed  later  as  a  lieutenant,  while  recruiting  a 
regiment  for  the  war  which  had  then  actually  be- 
gun. 

Edwin  and  Barclay  Coppock  were  born  of 
Quaker  parents  near  Salem,  Ohio,  Edwin  on  June 
30,  1835,  and  Barclay  on  January  4,  1839,  so  that 
Edwin  was  24  and  Barclay  not  quite  21  when  the 
attack  was  made  on  Harper's  Ferry. 

Salem  was  at  that  time  the  center  of  abolition- 
ism in  that  section.  It  was  settled  by  Quakers 
and  they  were  strongly  anti-slavery  in  sentiment. 
The  headquarters  of  the  "Western  Anti-Slavery 
Society"  was  located  here,  and  here  also  was  pub- 
lished the  "Anti-Slavery  Bugle,"  official  organ  of 
the  movement,  of  which  Benjamin  S.  Jones,  Oliver 
Johneon  and  Warren  E.  Robertson  were  editors 
They  waged  uncompromising  warfare  against  slav- 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  43 

ery,  attacked  the  United  States  constitution  as  it 
was  then  being  interpreted,  and  denounced  the 
churches  that  would  not  corne  out  openly  in  favor 
of  abolition.  They  were  called  "Disunion  Aboli- 
tionists," "Covenanters"  and  ''Infidels."  But  noth- 
ing daunted,  they  demanded  the  unconditional 
surrender  of  the  slave  power. 

During  one  of  the  annual  conventions  held  at 
the  Hicksite  Friends'  church  in  Salem  and  in  the 
midst  of  a  violent  speech  that  was  being  delivered 
against  the  encroachments  of  slavery  on  Northern 
soil  under  the  fugitive  slave  law,  an  excited  man 
entered  with  a  telegram  in  his  hand  and  announced 
breathlessly  that  the  four  o'clock  train,  due  in 
thirty  minutes,  had  aboard  of  it  a  southern  man 
and  his  wife  and  a  colored  slave  girl  as  a  nurse. 
It  was  at  once  proposed  that  they  proceed  to  the 
depot  in  a  body  and  meet  the  train  on  arrival. 
The  meeting  was  hastily  adjourned.  Intense  en- 
thusiasm prevailed.  They  marched  to  the  depot 
cheering  as  they  went  and  when  the  train  pulled 
in  they  boarded  it,  took  the  slave  girl  without  pro- 
test from  her  master  and  mistress  and  marched 
back  to  the  hall  with  her  in  triumph.  The  liber- 
ated girl  was  christened  Abby  Kelly  Salem,  in 
honor  of  Abby  Kelly  Foster,  one  of  the  speakers 
at  the  convention,  and  the  city  of  Salem.  The 
girl  grew  up  to  splendid  womanhood  and  was  high- 
ly esteemed  by  all  who  knew  her. 

The  old  town  hall,  still  standing,  is  where  many 
an  anti-slavery  meeting  was  held  in  that  day.  The 
most  stirring  and  eloquent  appeals  were  made  in 


44  LABOR   AND    FREEDOM. 

this  old  meeting  house  by  such  noted  abolitionists 
as  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  Wendell  Phillips, 
Susan  B.  Anthony,  Parker  Pillsbury,  Horace 
Mann,  John  Pierpont,  Gerrit  Smith,  Fred  Doug- 
las, Lucretia  Mott,  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton,  Owen 
Lovejoy,  Abby  Kelly  Foster,  George  Thompson  of 
England,  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  Robert  Collyer, 
John  P.  Hale  and  many  others. 

The  walls  of  the  old  town  hall  resounded  daily 
and  nightly  with  the  patriotism  and  love  of  free- 
dom of  Quaker  Salem. 

It  was  in  this  atmosphere  and  under  the  in- 
fluence of  these  impassioned  teachings  that  the 
Coppock  brothers,  sons  of  a  nearby  Quaker  farmer, 
grew  up  to  young  manhood.  It  had  been  in- 
grained into  their  very  nature  that  all  men  were 
created  equal  and  that  slavery  was  a  crime  against 
God  and  man,  and  with  this  conviction  they  re- 
solved to  shoulder  their  muskets  and  go  out  and 
fight  to  liberate  the  slaves. 

The  family  moved  to  Iowa  in  the  meantime  and 
it  was  here  that  these  young  Quaker  enthusiasts 
first  met  John  Brown,  who  was  then  waging  his 
warfare  against  slavery  in  the  free  soil  conflict 
in  that  state.  From  now  on  their  die  was  cast. 
They  would  follow  the  grim  old  chief  to  victory 
or  death.  It  proved  to  be  death  for  them  both 
and  when  it  came  they  met  it  with  a  calmness 
and  resignation  possible  only  to  the  loftiest  hero- 
ism. 

Barclay  Coppock  was  barely  twenty  years  of  age 
at  the  time  of  the  attack  on  Harper's  Ferry.  His 


LABOE   AND    FREEDOM.  45 

escape  was  almost  a  miracle.  A  heavy  reward  was 
offered  for  him  dead  or  alive.  After  weeks  of  the 
most  intense  privation  and  suffering,  lying  con- 
cealed in  the  brush  during  the  day  and  moving 
chiefly  by  night,  he  picked  his  way  back  to  the 
family  home  at  Springdale,  Iowa,  The  governor 
of  Virginia  issued  a  requisition  for  his  return, 
which  was  not  granted.  The  young  men  at  Spring- 
dale  and  that  vicinity  organized  to  protect  young 
Coppock  and  served  notice  on  the  Virginia  officers 
who  were  on  his  track  that  ''Springdale  is  in  arms 
and  is  prepared  at  a  half  hour's  notice  to  give 
them  a  reception  of  200  shots." 

In  the  following  spring  Barclay  returned  to 
Salem  and  here  again  the  Virginia  authorities  re- 
newed their  efforts  to  capture  him.  But  Barclay, 
now  among  his  old  neighbors  and  friends,  defied 
them.  He  sent  word  to  the  officers  in  pursuit  of 
him  as  to  where  he  might  be  found,  but  they  wisely 
refrained  from  attempting  to  take  him. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  Barclay  was  a  guest 
of  the  Bonsall  family  of  Salem,  the  elder  Bonsall 
being  one  of  the  leading  abolitionists  of  that  day. 
Charles  Bonsall,  his  son,  who  still  lives  at  Salem, 
knew  the  Coppock  brothers  well  and  has  a  distinct 
recollection  of  Barclay's  stay  at  his  father's  home. 

"During  Barclay's  sojourn  at  our  home,"  writes 
Charles  Bonsall  in  a  personal  letter,  "a  detective  of 
Salem  heard  of  his  being  in  our  neighborhood  and 
boasted  of  his  intention  to  arrest  Barclay  and  se- 
cure the  reward  there  was  on  his  head.  Barclay 
heard  of  the  boast  and  wrote  a  letter  to  the  de- 


48  LABOR   AND  FREEDOM. 

tective  informing  him  that  he  might  select  five 
other  men  and  he  would  meet  them  all  single- 
handed  and  alone  at  any  point  outside  the  city  that 
he  might  name,  and  they  could  have  the  privilege 
of  capturing  him  and  securing  the  reward.  The 
detective  did  not  undertake  the  job.  .  .  .  Bar- 
clay Coppock  never  knew  what  fear  was.  When  a 
boy  in  his  teens  he  often  went  to  the  woods  and 
slept  alone  all  night  on  the  ground,  under  the 
trees,  from  the  sheer  love  of  adventure.  He  was 
the  best  shot  with  his  eight-inch  Colt  I  ever  saw. 
On  one  occasion,  in  his  uncle's  woods  south  of 
Salem,  with  his  revolver,  he  shot  a  grey  squirrel 
from  a  big  oak  tree  and  put  two  more  balls  through 
its  body  before  it  reached  the  ground.  His  nerves 
were  as  calm  and  steady  in  a  fight  as  in  his  sleep, 
and  while  with  us  his  trusted  "navy"  was  always 
strapped  under  his  coat,  while  in  his  coat-pocket 
he  carried  a  small  pistol  ready  for  any  emergency 
at  close  quarters.  It  would  have  been  impossible 
to  capture  him  alive/' 

Barclay  Coppock's  escape  and  the  execution  of 
his  brother  but  intensified  his  hatred  and  horror  of 
slavery.  He  was  now  thoroughly  aroused  and  in- 
tent upon  plunging  anew  into  the  fight.  Return- 
ing to  Iowa,  and  convinced  that  civil  war  was  now 
inevitable,  he  prepared  actively  for  the  conflict. 

"Now  comes  one  of  those  remarkable  facts  of  su- 
per-epochal history,"  continues  Bonsall,  "which  go 
to  show  that  when  revolutionary  periods  focalize, 
revolutions  in  public  sentiment  are  brought  about 
in  almost  a  twinkling.  In  the  spring  of  1861,  just 


LABOR   AND   FREEDOM.  47 

about  one  year  from  the  time  the  United  States 
Government  was  offering  a  reward  of  one  thousand 
dollars  for  Barclay  Coppock,  dead  or  alive,  the 
same  government  lifted  its  hat  and  humbly  bowed 
to  him,  and  begged  him  to  accept  a  first  lieuten- 
ant's commission  in  Company  C,  Third  Kansas 
volunteers.  He  accepted  the  coin  mission  and  at 
once  proceeded  to  organize  his  company.  Captain 
Allen  of  Ashtabula  of  the  same  company.,  came  to 
Salem  to  recruit  volunteers  and  the  writer,,  to- 
gether with  half  a  score  of  other  abolition  boys,  en- 
listed in  Coppock's  company.  .  .  .  Soon  after 
Lieutenant  Coppock  was  on  his  way  from  Spring- 
dale  to  Fort  Leavenworth  to  join  his  regiment 
there.  The  rebels  in  Missouri,  hearing  of  his  com- 
ing, burned  the  railroad  bridge  across  the  Little 
Platte  river  near  St.  Joseph,  and  the  train  carry- 
ing the  troops  was  precipitated  into  the  river  in 
the  darkness  of  night  and  brave  Lieutenant  Cop 
pock  was  killed  in  the  wreck." 

Thus  perished,  still  in  his  boyhood,  as  heroic  a 
heart,  as  noble  a  soul,  as  ever  gave  up  his  life  in 
the  cause  of  freedom.  Had  he  been  spared  he 
would  without  doubt  have  become  one  of  the  famed 
heroes  of  the  war  of  the  rebellion. 

Edwin  Coppock  was  executed  from  the  same  gal- 
lows as  his  old  chief,  but  two  weeks  later.  His 
trial,  like  that  of  Brown,  was  a  farce.  Conviction, 
sentence  and  execution  of  all  of  Brown's  men  that 
were  captured  was  a  foregone  conclusion. 

While  awaiting  the  execution  of  his  sentence, 


48  LABOR   AND    FREEDOM. 

Edwin  wrote  to  Mrs.  Brown,,  wife  of  his  dead 
leader : 

"I  was  with  your  sons  when  they  fell.  Oliver 
lived  but  a  very  few  moments  after  he  was  shot.  He 
spoke  no  word,  but  yielded  calmly  to  his  fate. 
Watson  was  shot  at  ten  o'clock  Monday  morning 
and  died  about  three  o'clock  Monday  afternoon. 
' ,  • . • .  .  After  we  were  taken  prisoners  he  was 
placed  in  the  guardhouse  with  me.  He  complained 
of  the  hardness  of  the  bench  on  which  he  was  ly- 
ing. I  begged  hard  for  a  bed  for  him,  or  even  a 
blanket,  but  could  obtain  none.  I  took  off  my  coat 
and  placed  it  under  him  and  held  his  head  in  my 
lap,  in  which  position  he  died  without  a  groan  or 
struggle." 

In  a  letter  to  friends  in  Iowa,  under  date  of  No- 
vember 22d,  three  weeks  before  his  execution,  he 
wrote : 

"Eleven  of  our  little  band  are  sleeping  now  in 
their  bloody  garments  with  the  cold  earth  above 
them.  Braver  men  never  lived ;  truer  men  to  their 
plighted  word  never  banded  together." 

Rigidly  true  to  their  convictions  were  all  these 
young  heroes.  Not  one  showed  the  white  feather 
in  the  last  hour.  Serenely  and  without  a  quiver 
each  of  them  met  his  cruel  fate. 

John  Brown  had  trained  up  his  men  in  the 
strictest  discipline.  Not  a  drop  of  liquor  was  al- 
lowed in  his  camp.  Tobacco  was  tabooed.  Profane 
language  was  forbidden. 

These  men  weir  in  deadly  earnest  and  their  as- 
ceticism attested  their  single-hearted  fidelity  to 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  49 

their  cause.  They  were  profoundly  convinced  that 
slavery  was  a  national  crime  and  that  it  was  their 
patriotic  duty,  at  whatever  cost,  to  wipe  that  insuf- 
ferable stigina  from  the  land. 

And  who  shall  say  that  they  were  not  right;  or 
that  they  forfeited  their  brave  lives  in  vain  ? 

A  few  days  before  the  gallows  claimed  him.,  John 
Brown  wrote  to  his  family,  "I  feel  no  conscious- 
ness of  guilt  and  I  am  perfectly  certain  that  very 
soon  no  member  of  the  family  will  feel  any  possible 
disposition  to  blush  on  my  account." 

The  Coppock  brothers  were  typical  of  all  the 
brave  young  abolitionists  who  banded  together  to 
strike  a  blow  that  rocked  this  nation  as  if  Jehovah 
in  his  wrath  had  laid  hold  on  it.  Quaker  lads, 
"grave,  quiet,  reserved,  even  rustic  in  their  ways," 
they  lived  bravely  up  to  their  convictions  and 
sealed  their  devotion  to  the  cause  of  freedom  with 
their  precious  young  life  blood. 

The  noble  character  of  Edwin  Coppock  is  re- 
vealed in  the  following  pathetic  letter  written  to 
his  uncle  on  the  eve  of  his  execution.  There  is  no 
bitterness  in  his  heart  at  the  last  hour.  Like  the 
great  Galilean  who  also  perished  for  sympathizing 
with  the  lowly  and  oppressed,  he  was  calm  and  re- 
signed in  the  presence  of  his  fate.  Like  all  such 
souls  he  was  gifted  with  prophetic  vision,  as  his 
letter  shows : 

Charleston,  December  13,  1859. 
Joshua  Coppock: 

My  Dear  Uncle — I  seat  myself  by  the  stand  to 
write  for  the  first  and  last  time  to  thee  and  thy 
dear  family.  Though  far  from  home  and  over- 
taken by  misfortune,  I  have  not  forgotten  you. 
Tour  generous  hospitality  towards  me,  during  my 


50  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

short  stay  with  you  last  spring,  is  stamped  in- 
delibly upon  my  heart,  and  also  the  generosity 
bestowed  upon  rny  brother  who  now  wanders,  an 
outcast  from  his  native  land.  But  thank  God,  he 
is  free.  I  am  thankful  it  is  I  who  has  to  suffer 
instead  of  him. 

The  time  may  come  when  he  will  remember  me. 
And  the  time  may  come  when  he  may  still  further 
remember  the  cause  in  which  I  die.  Thank  God 
the  principles  of  the  cause  in  which  we  were 
engaged  will  not  die  with  me  and  my  brave  com- 
rades. They  will  spread  wider  and  wider  and 
gather  strength  with  each  hour  that  passes.  The 
voice  of  truth  will  echo  through  our  land,  bring- 
ing conviction  to  the  erring  and  adding  members 
to  the  glorious  army  who  will  follow  its  banner. 
The  cause  of  everlasting  truth  and  justice  will  go 
on  conquering  and  to  conquer  until  our  broad  and 
beautiful  land  shall  rest  beneath  the  banner  of 
freedom.  I  had  fondly  hoped  to  live  to  see  the 
principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  fully 
realized.  I  had  hoped  to  see  the  dark  stain  of 
slavery  blotted  from  our  land,  and  the  libel  of  our 
boasted  freedom  erased,  when  we  can  say  in  truth 
that  our  beloved  country  is  the  land  of  the  free 
and  the  home  of  the  brave;  but  that  cannot  be. 

I  have  heard  my  sentence  passed;  my  doom  is 
sealed.  But  two  more  short  days  remains  for  me 
to  fulfill  my  earthly  destiny.  But  two  brief  days 
between  me  and  eternity.  At  the  expiration  of 
those  two  days  I  shall  stand  upon  the  scaffold  to 
take  by  last  look  of  earthly  scenes.  But  that 
scaffold  has  but  little  dread  for  me,  for  I  hon- 
estly believe  I  am  innocent  of  any  crime  justify- 
ing such  punishment.  But  by  the  taking  of  my 
life  and  the  lives  of  my  comrades,  Virginia  is 
but  hastening  on  that  glorious  day,  when  the  slave 
will  rejoice  in  his  freedom  and  say,  "I,  too,  am  a 
man,  and  am  groaning  no  more  under  the  yoke 
of  oppression." 

But  I  must  now  close.  Accept  this  short  scrawl 
as  a  remembrance  of  me.  Give  my  love  to  all  the 
familv.  Kiss  little  Joey  for  me.  Remember  me 
to  aH  my  relatives  and  friends.  And  now  fare- 
well for  the  last  time. 

From  thy  nephew,  TCDWTN  COPPOCK. 

Two  days  later  the  slave  state  of  Virginia  hung 
Edwin  Coppock  by  the  neck  until  he  was  dead.  The 
gallant  John  E.  Cook  went  to  the  scaffold  with 
him.  The  account  says : 

"After  the  cap  had  been  placed  on  their  heads, 
Coppock  turned  toward  Cook  and  stretched  for- 


LABOR   AND   FREEDOM.  51 

ward  his  hand  as  far  as  possible.  At  the  same  time 
Cook  said,  'Stop  a  minute  —  where  is  Edwin's 
hand?'  They  then  shook  hands  cordially  and 
Cook  said,  'God  bless  you.'  The  calm  and  collected 
manner  of  both  was  very  marked.  .  .  .  They 
both  exhibited  the  most  unflinching  firmness,  say- 
ing nothing,  with  the  exception  of  bidding  fare- 
well to  the  ministers  and  the  sheriff." 

More  than  half  a  century  has  passed  since  John 
Brown  and  his  faithful  followers  gave  up  their 
lives  to  set  the  black  men  free,  but  history  has  yet 
to  do  them  justice.  Some  day  the  hatred  and 
prejudice  will  all  have  died  away  and  then  these 
men,  summoned  to  the  bar  of  enlightened  judg- 
ment, will  be  crowned  as  the  greatest  heroes  in 
American  history. 


THE    SOCIAL    SPIRIT. 

Appeal  to  Reason. 

We  need  to  grow  out  of  the  selfish,  sordid,  brutal 
spirit  of  individualism  which  still  lurks  even  in 
Socialists  and  is  responsible  for  the  strife  and  con- 
tention which  prevail  where  there  should  be  con- 
cord and  good  will.  The  social  spirit  and  the  so- 
cial conscience  must  be  developed  and  govern  our 
social  relations  before  we  shall  have  any  social  revo- 
lution. 

If  there  are  any  among  whom  the  social  spirit 


52  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

should  find  its  highest  expression  and  who  should 
be  bound  fast  in  its  comradely  embrace  and  give  to 
the  world  the  example  of  its  elevating  and  human- 
izing influence,  it  is  the  Socialists.  They  of  all 
others  have  come  to  realize  the  hardening  and  bru- 
talizing effect  of  capitalist  individualism  in  the 
awful  struggle  for  existence  and  it  is  to  them  a 
cause  of  unceasing  rejoicing  that  they  live  at  a 
time  in  the  world's  historic  development  when  the 
very  conditions  which  resulted  from  this  age-long 
struggle  forbid  its  continuance  and  proclaim  its 
approaching  termination. 

The  rule  of  individualism  which  has  governed 
society  since  the  days  of  primitive  communism  has 
effectually  restrained  the  moral  and  spiritual  de- 
velopment of  the  race.  It  has  brought  out  the 
baser  side  of  men's  nature  and  set  them  against 
each  other  as  if  the  plan  of  creation  had  designed 
them  to  be  mortal  enemies. 


Typical  capitalists  are  barren  of  the  social  spirit. 
The  very  nature  of  the  catch-as-catch-can  encounter 
in  which  they  are  engaged  makes  them  wary  and 
suspicious,  if  not  downright  hateful  of  each  other, 
and  the  latent  good  that  is  in  them  dies  for  the 
want  of  incentive  to  express  itself. 

The  other  day  I  saw  two  such  capitalists  shake 
hands.  It  was  pitiable.  Their  hearts  had  no  part 
in  the  purely  perfunctory  ceremony.  They  hap- 
pened to  meet  and  could  not  avoid  each  other.  And 
so  they  mechanically  touched  each  other's  reluctant 
hands,  standing  at  right  angles  to  each  other  for 


L<LBOR   AND    FREEDOM.  53 

a  moment — not  face  to  face — and  then  passing  on 
without  either  looking  the  other  in  the  eyes. 

This  cold  and  heartless  ceremony  typified  the 
relation  begotten  of  capitalist  individualism  in 
which  men's  interests  are  competitive  and  antago- 
nistic and  in  which  each  instinctively  looks  out 
for  himself  and  is  on  the  alert  to  take  every  pos- 
sible advantage  of  his  fellow-man. 

The  result  of  this  system  is  inevitably  a  race 
of  Ishmaelites. 

How  differently  two  Socialist  comrades  shake 
hands !  Their  hearts  are  in  their  palms  and  the 
joy  of  greeting  is  in  their  eyes.  They  have  the 
social  spirit.  Their  interests  are  mutual  and  their 
aspirations  kindred.  If  one  happens  to  be  strong 
and  the  other  weak,  the  stronger  shares  the  weak- 
ness and  the  weaker  shares  the  strength  of  his 
comrade.  The  base  thought  of  taking  a  mean  ad- 
vantage, one  of  the  other,  does  not  darken  their 
minds  or  harden  their  hearts.  They  are  joined 
together  in  the  humanizing  bonds  of  fellowship. 
They  multiply  each  other  and  they  rejoice  in 
their  comradely  kinship.  The  best  there  is  in  each, 
and  not  the  worst,  as  in  the  contact  of  individual- 
ism, is  appealed  to  and  brought  forth  for  the  bene- 
fit of  both. 

What  an  elevating,  enlarging  and  satisfying  re- 
lation ! 

And  this  is  the  "dead  level"  of  mediocrity  and 
servitude  to  which  we  are  to  sink  when  this  rela- 
tion becomes  universal  among  men  as  it  will  in  the 
International  Socialist  Republic ! 


54  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

So  at  least  we  are  told  by  those  who  in  the  pres- 
ent system  have  acquired  the  instincts  and  impulses 
of  animals  of  prey  in  the  development  of  their 
imagined  superiority  by  draining  the  veins  and 
wrecking  the  lives  of  their  vanquished  competitors, 
but  we  are  not  impressed  by  the  virtues  of  the  sys- 
tem of  which  they  stand  as  the  shining  examples. 
*  *  *  * 

Thru  all  the  ages  past  men,  civilized  men, 
so-called,  have  been  at  each  other's  throats  in  the 
struggle  for  existence,  and  the  spirit  of  individul- 
ism  this  struggle  has  begotten,  the  spirit  of  hard, 
sordid,  brutal  selfishness,  has  filled  this  world  with 
unutterable  anguish  and  woe. 

But  at  last  the  end  of  the  reign  of  anarchistic 
individualism  is  in  sight.  The  social  forces  at 
work  are  undermining  and  destroying  it  and  soon 
its  knell  will  be  sounded  to  the  infinite  joy  of  an 
emancipated  world. 

The  largest  possible  expression  of  the  social 
spirit  should  be  fostered  and  encouraged  in  the  So- 
cialist movement  and  among  Socialists  themselves. 
In  spite  of  the  hindrances  which  beset  us  in  our 
present  environments  and  relations,  we  may  yet  cul- 
tivate this  spirit  assiduously  to  our  increasing  mu- 
tual good  and  to  the  good  of  our  great  movement. 

In  our  propaganda,  in  the  discussion  of  our 
tactical  and  other  differences  and  in  all  our  other 
activities,  the  larger  faith  that  true  comradeship 
inspires  should  prevail  between  us.  We  need  to  be 
more  patient,  more  kindly,  more  tolerant,  more 
sympathetic,  helpful  and  encouraging  to  one  an- 


LABOR   AND   FREEDOM.  55 

other,  and  less  suspicious,  less  envious,  and  less  con- 
tentious, if  we  are  to  educate  and  impress  the  peo- 
ple by  our  example,  and  by  the  effect  of  our  teach- 
ings upon  ourselves  win  them  to  our  movement, 
and  realize  our  dream  of  universal  freedom  and 
social  righteousness. 


ROOSEVELT  AND  HIS  REGIME. 

Appeal    to    Reason,    April    20,    1907. 

The  only  time  in  my  life  I  ever  saw  Theodore 
Roosevelt  was  years  before  he  became  president 
of  the  United  States.  I  was  aboard  of  a  train 
in  the  far  west,  where  Roosevelt  was  then  said  to 
be  following  ranch  life,  and  as  he  and  several 
companions  in  cowboy  costume  entered  the  car 
at  a  station  stop,  he  wa*s  pointed  out  to  me.  I 
did  not  like  him.  The  years  since  have  not  altered 
that  feeling  of  aversion  except  to  accentuate  it. 

I  have  since  seen  the  nation  mad  with  hero 
worship  over  this  man  Roosevelt,  but  I  have  not 
been  impressed  by  it.  Very  "great"  men  some- 
times shrivel  into  very  small  ones  and  finally  van- 
ish in  oblivion  in  the  short  space  of  a  single  gen- 
eration. 

The  American  people  are  more  idolatrous  than 
any  "heathen"  nation  on  earth.  They  worship 
their  popular  "heroes,"  while  they  last,  with  pas- 
sionate frenzy,  and  with  equal  madness  do  they 


56  LABOR   AXD   FREEDOM. 

hunt  down  the  sane  "fools"  who  vainly  try  to 
teach  them  sense.  Theodore  Eoosevelt  and  George 
Dewey  as  "heroes"  and  Wendell  Phillips  and  John 
Brown  as  "fools"  are  notable  illustrations.  Amer- 
ican history  is  filled  with  them. 

But  my  personal  dislike  of  the  cowboy  in  imita- 
tion who  has  since  become  president,  however 
justifiable,  would  scarcely  warrant  a  public  attack 
upon  his  official  character,  and  this  review,  being 
of  such  a  nature,  is  inspired,  as  will  appear,  by 
entirely  different  motives. 

There  are  those,  and  they  constitute  a  great 
majority  of  the  American  people,  who  stand  in 
awe  of  their  president,  supposedly  their  servant, 
but  in  fact  their  master;  they  speak  of  him  with 
a  kind  of  reverential  adulation  as  a  lordly  per- 
sonage, a  superior  being  to  be  looked  up  to  and 
worshiped  rather  than  a  fellowman  to  be  respected 
and  loved.  There  are  others  who  betray  equal 
ignorance  in  a  more  vulgar  fashion  by  coarse  ti- 
rades for  which  there  is  often  as  little  excuse  a? 
there  is  for  the  extreme  adulation. 

Regarding  the  president  of  the  United  States, 
as  I  do,  simply  as  a  citizen  and  fellowman,  the 
same  as  any  other,  I  shall  speak  of  him  and  his 
acts  free  alike  from  awe  and  malice,  and  if  I  place 
him  in  the  public  pillory,  where  he  has  placed  so 
many  others,  to  be  seen  and  despised  of  men,  it  will 
be  from  a  sense  that  his  official  acts,  so  often  in 
flat  denial  of  his  profession,  merit  the  execration 
of  honest  men. 

In  arraigning  President  Roosevelt  and  his  ad- 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  57 

ministration  I  have  no  piivate  spite  nor  personal 
grudge  to  satisfy,  but  an  obligation  to  redeem  and 
a  principle  to  vindicate. 

I  shall  go  about  it  as  I  would  any  other  moral 
duty,  asking  no  favors  and  prepared  to  accept  all 
consequences. 

In  the  first  place,  I  charge  President  Roosevelt 
with  being  a  hypocrite,  the  most  consummate  that 
ever  occupied  the  executive  seat  of  the  nation. 
His  profession  of  pure  politics  is  false,  his  boasted 
moral  courage  the  bluff  of  a  bully  and  his  "square 
deal"  a  delusion  and  a  sham. 

Theodore  Roosevelt  is  mainly  for  Theodore 
Roosevelt  and  incidentally  for  such  others  a?  are 
also  for  the  same  distinguished  gentleman,  first, 
last  and  all  the  time.  He  is  a  smooth  and  slippery 
politician,  swollen  purple  with  self-conceit:  he  is 
shrewd  enough  to  gauge  the  stupdity  of  the  masses 
and  unscrupulous  enough  to  turn  it  into  hero  wor- 
ship. This  constitutes  the  demagogue,  and  he  is 
that  in  superlative  degree. 

Only  a  few  days  ago  he  appeared  in  a  charac- 
teristic role.  Rushing  into  the  limelight,  as  nec- 
essary to  Kim  as  breath,  he  shrieked  that  he  and 
"Root"  were  "horrified"  because  of  certain  scandal- 
ous and  revolting  charges  made  by  one«of  his  own 
former  political  chums.  Of  course,  he  and  "Root" 
of  Tweed  fame,  the  foxiest  "fixer"  of  them  all, 
were  "horrified"  because  of  the  shock  to  their  po- 
litical virtue,  but  it  so  happened  that  the  horror 
took  effect  only  when  they  found  themselves  un- 
covered. The  taking  of  Harriman's  boodle  for 


58  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

corruptly  electing  him  president  and  the  use  of 
the  stolen  insurance  funds  for  the  same  criminal 
purpose  did  not  "horrify"  the  president  and 
"Root,"  nor  would  they  be  "horrified"  yet  if  they 
had  not  been  caught  red-handed  in  the  act  with 
the  booty  upon  their  persons. 

The  cry  of  the  exposed  malefactor  and  all  his 
pack  of  yelpers  that  he  is  the  victim  of  a  "plot" 
by  his  own  friends  and  supporters,  the  very  gentle- 
men (sic)  who  furnished  him  with  free  special 
trains,  paid  his  campaign  expenses  and  in  fact 
bought  the  presidency  for  him,  is  so  palpably  false 
as  to  be  absolutely  ridiculous  and  only  brings  into 
bolder  relief  the  hypocrisy  and  fraud  it  was  de- 
signed to  conceal. 

This  much  is  preliminary  to  the  extraordinary 
official  conduct  of  the  president  which  has  "hor- 
rified" not  only  its  victims  but  millions  of  others, 
and  now  prompts  this  review  and  protest. 

Something  over  a  year  ago  Charles  Moyer,  Wil- 
liam Haywood  and  George  Pettibone,  of  Colorado, 
leading  officials  of  the  Western  Federation  of  Min- 
ers, were  overpowered  and  kidnaped  by  a  gang  of 
thugs  and  torn  from  their  families  at  night  by 
conspiracy  of  two  degenerate  governors  and  an- 
other notorious  criminal  acting  for  the  Mine  and 
Smelter  Trust,  one  of  the  most  stupendous  aggre- 
gations of  force  and  plunder  in  all  America. 

Every  decent  man  and  woman  was  "horrified" 
by  this  infamy  and  the  whole  working  class  of  the 
nation  cried  out  against  it. 

Was  Roosevelt  also  "horrified"? 


LABOR   AND   FREEDOM.  59 

Yes! 

Because  the  Mine  and  Smelter  Trust  had  kid- 
naped three  citizens  of  the  republic? 

Oh,  no ! 

The  three  citizens  were  only  working  cattle  and 
he  never  had  any  other  conception  of  them. 

He  was  "horrified"  because  the  Mine  and  Smel- 
ter Trust,  unclean  birds  that  feather  their  nests, 
especially  in  Colorado,  with  legislatures  and  United 
States  senatorships,  had  not  killed  instead  of  kid- 
naping their  victims. 

Then  and  there  Theodore  Roosevelt  disgraced 
himself  and  his  high  office,  and  his  cruel  and  cow- 
ardly act  will  load  his  name  with  odium  as  long  as 
it  is  remembered. 

The  Mine  and  Smelter  Trust  had  put  up  the 
funds  and  used  its  vast  machinery  for  Roosevelt, 
and  now  Roosevelt  must  serve  it  even  to  the  extent 
of  upholding  criminals,  approving  kidnaping  and 
murdering  its  helpless  victims. 

When  Roosevelt  stepped  out  of  the  White  House 
and  called  Moyer,  Haywood  and  Pettibone  mur- 
derers, men  he  had  never  seen  and  did  not  know; 
men  who  had  never  been  tried,  never  convicted  and 
whom  every  law  of  the  land  presumed  innocent 
until  proven  guilty,  he  fell  a  million  miles  beneath 
where  Lincoln  stood,  and  there  he  grovels  today 
with  his  political  crimes,  one  after  another,  find- 
ing him  out  and  pointing  at  him  their  accusing 
fingers. 

No  president  of  the  United  States  has  ever  de- 


60  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

scended  to  such  depths  as  has  Roosevelt  to  serve 
his  law-defying  and  crime-inciting  masters. 

The  act  is  simply  scandalous  and  without  a  par- 
allel in  American  history. 

What  right  has  Theodore  Roosevelt  to  prejudge 
American  citizens,  pronounce  their  guilt  and  hand 
them  over  to  the  hangman  ?  In  a  pettifogging  law- 
yer such  an  act  would  be  infamous;  in  the  presi- 
dent of  the  nation  it  becomes  monstrous  and  stag- 
gers belief. 

All  that  Roosevelt  knows  about  Moyer,  Haywood 
and  Pettibone  he  knows  from  his  friends,  their 
kidnapers. 

The  millions  of  working  men  and  women,  em- 
bracing practically  ever  labor  union  in  America, 
count  for  nothing  with  him.  He  is  not  now  stand- 
ing for  their  votes.  He  is  fulfilling  his  obligation 
to  the  gentlemen  ( !)  who  put  up  the  coin  that 
elected  him;  paying  off  the  mortgage  they  hold 
upon  his  administration. 

Theodore  Roosevelt  is  swift  to  brand  other  men 
who  even  venture  to  disagree  with  him  as  liars. 
He,  according  to  himself,  is  immaculate  and  in- 
fallible. 

The  greatest  liar  is  he  who  sees  only  liars  in 
others. 

When    Theodore    Roosevelt,   president    of   the 

United  States,  denounced  Charles  Moyer,  William 
Haywood  and  George  Pettibone  as  murderers,  he 
uttered  a  lie  as  black  and  damnable,  a  calumny  as 
foul  and  atrocious  as  ever  issued  from  a  human 
throat.  The  men  he  thus  traduced  and  vilified, 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  (il 

sitting  in  their  prison  cells  for  having  dutifully 
served  their  fellow-workers  and  having  spurned  the 
bribes  of  their  masters,  transcend  immeasurably  the 
man  in  the  White  House,  who,  with  the  cruel  mal- 
evolence of  a  barbarian,  has  pronounced  their  doom. 

A  thousand  times  rather  would  I  be  oue  of  those 
men  in  Ada  county  jail  than  Theodore  Roosevelt 
in  the  White  House  at  Washington. 

Had  these  men  accepted,  with  but  a  shadow  of 
the  eagnerness  Roosevelt  displayed,  the  debauching 
funds  of  the  trust  pirates,  they  would  not  now 
languish  in  felons'  cells. 

The  same  brazen  robbers  of  the  people  and  cor- 
rupters  of  the  body  politic  who  put  Moyer,  Hay 
wood  and   Pettibone  in  jail,  also  put  Theodore 
Roosevelt  in  the  White  House. 

This  accounts  for  his  prostituting  the  high  office 
Lincoln  honored  and  resorting  to  methods  that 
would  shame  a  Bowery  ward-heeler. 

Moyer,  Haywood  and  Pettibone  are  not  mur- 
derers ;  it  is  a  ghastly  lie,  and  I  denounce  it  in  the 
name  of  law  and  in  the  name  of  justice.  I  know 
these  men,  these  sons  of  toil;  I  know  their  hearts, 
their  guileless  nature  and  their  rugged  honesty. 
I  love  and  honor  them  and  shall  fight  for  them 
while  there  is  breath  in  my  body. 

Here  and  now  I  challenge  Theodore  Roosevelt. 
He  is  guilty  of  high  crimes  and  deserves  impeach- 
ment. 

Let  him  do  his  worst.  I  denounce  him  and  defy 
him. 

During  my  recent  visit  at  Washington  I  learned 


62  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

from  those  who  know  him  what  they  think  of 
Roosevelt.  Among  newspaper  men  he  is  literally 
despised.  Their  true  feeling  is  not  apparent  in 
what  they  write,  for  they  know  that  the  slightest 
offense  to  the  president  is  lese  majeste  and  means 
instantaneous  decapitation. 

For  the  second  time,  Theodore  Roosevelt,  presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  has  now  publicly  con- 
victed Moyer,  Haywood  and  Pettibone.  He  has 
not  pronounced  condemnation  upon  Harry  Thaw, 
or  any  rich  man  charged  with  murder.  He  has, 
however,  made  a  postmaster  of  a  man  at  Chicago 
charged  by  the  Chicago  Tribune  with  having  shot 
another  man  in  a  midnight  brawl  over  disreputa- 
ble women,  and  then  used  his  influence  to  make  the 
same  man  mayor  of  that  city. 

Moyer,  Haywood  and  Pettibone,  the  three  work- 
ingmen  kidnaped  by  the  Mine  and  Smelter  Trust, 
have  now  been  in  jail  fourteen  months;  they  have 
not  been  tried,  but  twice  condemned  by  President 
Roosevelt,  the  last  time  but  a  few  days  ago,  in  con- 
nection with  Harriman,  his  former  political  pal 
and  financial  backer.  These  men  are  in  prison 
cells,  their  bodies  in  manacles  and  their  lips  sealed. 
They  cannot  speak  for  themselves.  They  are  voice- 
less and  at  the  mercy  of  calumny.  No  matter  how 
grossly  outraged,  they  must  submit. 

For  a  man  clothed  with  the  almost  absolute  pow- 
er of  a  president  to  strike  down  men  gagged  and 
bound,  as  these  men  are,  he  must  have  an  unspeak- 
ably brutal  and  cowardly  nature,  just  such  a  nature 
as  the  governor  of  an  empire  state  must  have  to 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  <)3 

turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the  agonizing  entreaties  of  a 
shrieking,  shuddering  woman  and  see  her  dragged 
into  the  horrors  of  electrocution. 

The  true  character  of  this  man  is  being  gradu- 
ally revealed  to  the  American  people.  He  has 
never  been  anything  but  an  enemy  of  the  working 
class.  He  joined  a  labor  organization  purely  as  a 
demagogue.  In  all  his  life  he  never  associated  with 
working  people.  His  writings,  before  he  became 
a  politician,  show  that  he  held  them  in  contempt. 
When  he  entered  political  life  he  soon  learned  how 
to  shake  hands  with  a  fireman  for  the  camera  and 
have  his  press  agent  do  the  rest,  and  it  was  this 
species  of  demagoguery,  the  very  basest  conceiv- 
able, that  idolized  him  with  the  ignorant  mass  and 
gave  him  the  votes  of  the  millions  he  in  his  heart 
despised  as  an  inferior  race. 

In  his  book  on  "Ranch  Life  and  the  Hunting 
Trail,"  page  10,  written  long  before  he  entered 
politics,  Roosevelt  reveals  his  innate  contempt  for 
those  who  toil.  After  describing  cowboys  when 
"drunk  on  the  villainous  whiskey  of  the  frontier 
towns/'  he  closes  with  this  comparison,  which 
needs  no  comment:  "They  are  much  better  fel- 
lows and  pleasanter  companions  than  small  farmers 
or  agricultural  laborers ;  nor  are  the  mechanics  and 
workmen  of  a  great  city  to  be  mentioned  in  the 
same  breath." 

The  pretended  friendship  for  the  great  body  of 
workingmen  who  are  not  to  be  compared  to  drunken 
cowboys  has  served  its  demogogical  purpose,  but 
the  final  chapter  is  not  yet  written.  There  will  be 


64  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

an  awakening,  and  every  official  act  of  Theodore 
Roosevelt  will  be  subjected  to  its  searching  scru- 
tiny. He  has  always  been  on  the  side  of  capital 
wholly,  while  pretending  the  impossible  feat  of  serv- 
ing both  capital  and  labor  with  equal  fidelity,  and 
only  the  deplorable  ignorance  of  his  dupes  has 
applauded  him  in  that  hypocritical  role. 

The  anthracite  miners,  or  their  children  at  least, 
will  some  day  know  that  it  was  President  Theodore 
Roosevelt  who  handed  them  over  to  the  coal  trust 
with  a  gold  brick  for  a  souvenir,  labeled  "Arbi- 
tration." 

Theodore  Roosevelt  is  an  aristocrat  and  an  auto- 
crat. His  affected  democracy  is  spurious  and  easily 
detected.  He  belongs  to  the  "upper  crust"  and  at 
the  very  best  he  can  conceive  of  the  working  class 
only  as  contented  wage-slaves.  And  no  one  knows 
better  than  he  how  easily  these  slaves  are  duped 
and  how  madly  they  will  cheer  and  follow  a  cheap 
and  showy  "hero." 

The  simple  fact  is  that  Theodore  Roosevelt  was 
made  president  by  the  industrial  captains  and  the 
robbers  in  general  of  the  working  class.  They 
picked  him  for  a  winner  and  he  has  not  failed 
them.  Elected  by  the  trusts  and  surrounded  by 
trust  attorneys  as  cabinet  advisers,  Roosevelt  is  es- 
sentially the  monarch  of  a  trust  administration. 

If  this  be  denied,  Roosevelt  is  challenged  to  an- 
swer if  it  was  not  the  railroad  trust  that  furnished 
him  gratuitously  with  the  special  trains  that  bore 
him  in  royal  splendor  over  all  the  railways  of  the 
nation.  He  is  challenged  to  publish  the  list  of 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  65 

contributors  to  his  political  sewer  funds,  amount- 
ing to  millions  of  dollars,  and  freely  used  to  buy 
the  votes  that  made  him  president. 

Did,  or  did  not,  the  men  known  as  trust  mag- 
nates put  up  this  boodle?  Boodle  drawn  from  the 
veins  of  labor? 

Will  Mr.  Eoosevelt  deny  it? 

Did  he  not  know  at  the  time  that  his  man  Cor- 
telyou  was  holding  up  the  trusts  for  all  they  would 
"cough  up"  for  his  election? 

Will  he  dare  plead  ignorance  to  intelligent  per- 
sons as  to  who  put  up  the  money  that  debauched 
the  voters  of  the  nation  ? 

It  is  true  that  a  spasm  of  virtuous  indignation 
seized  him  when  he  found  that  the  trusts  had 
slipped  the  lucre  into  his  slush  funds  when  he  was 
not  looking,  but  this  was  only  after  he  saw  the 
people  looking  behind  the  curtain.  Then  he 
bounded  to  the  foot-lights  and  denounced  Alton  B. 
Parker  as  a  liar  for  charging  that  the  trusts  were 
furnishing  the  boodle  to  make  him  president,  but 
no  man  not  feeble-minded  was  deceived  as  to  who 
was  the  liar. 

Read  the  Washington  press  dispatch  in  the  Kan- 
sas City  Journal  of  April  4th:  "It  was  declared 
in  banking  circles  that  light  could  be  shed  on  the 
question  of  campaign  contributions  in  1904  if  the 
books  of  the  national  Republican  committee  were 
thrown  open." 

The  books  will  not  be  thrown  open.  Roosevelt 
will  not  allow  it;  he  knows  they  contain  the  damn- 
ing evidence  of  his  guilt. 


66  LABOR   AND    FREEDOM. 

The  case  is  clearly  stated  in  the  platform  of  the 
Democratic  state  convention  of  Missouri,  adopted 
in  1906,  which  reads  as  follows: 

"We  believe  Theodore  Roosevelt  insincere.  Pre- 
tending to  inveigh  against  the  crimes  of  trusts  and 
corporations,  he  openly  defended  Paul  Morton, 
when,  as  manager  of  the  Santa  Fe  railroad,  he  was 
compelled  to  confess  enormous  rebates  to  the  Colo- 
rado Fuel  and  Iron  Company.  It  was  Roosevelt 
who  advanced  the  pernicious  doctrine  that  you 
must  punish  the  corporation,  not  its  officials  who 
cause  it  to  commit  crime.  It  was  Roosevelt  who 
denounced  large  campaign  contributions,  while  his 
secretary  of  commerce  and  labor  was  fleecing  the 
corporations  out  of  one  of  the  biggest  slush  funds 
ever  known  in  the  history  of  American  politics." 

President  Roosevelt  may  shout  "liar"  until  he 
turns  as  black  in  the  face  as  are  the  cracksmen  at 
heart  who  burglarized  the  safes  of  the  New  York 
insurance  companies  to  land  him  in  the  White 
House,  while  he  was  toying  with  the  names  of 
"Jimmy"  Hyde  and  Chauncey  Depew  as  pawns  in 
the  corrupt  game,  but  the  "damned  spot"  will  not 
out  until  the  whole  truth  is  known  and  the  whole 
crime  expiated. 

The  publication  of  the  Roosevelt-Harriman  cor- 
respondence places  the  president  in  his  true  colors 
before  the  American  people.  It  explains  his  hot 
haste  in  condemning  Moyer,  Haywood  and  Petti- 
bone  to  the  gallows  and  pending  Taft  to  Idaho  to 
assure  the  smelter  trust  and  warn  the  protesting 
people  that  the  kidnaping  of  the  workingmen  was 


LABOR   AND   FREEDOM.  67 

sanctioned  by  the  White  House  and  would  have  the 
support  of  the  national  administration. 

A  more  shameful  perversion  of  public  power 
never  blackened  the  pages  of  history. 

This  national  scandal  shows  up  the  president's 
two-faced  character  so  clearly  and  convincingly 
that  it  leaves  not  so  much  as  a  pin-hole  for  escape. 
It  is  a  damning  indictment  of  not  only  the  presi- 
dent, but  the  whole  brood  of  plutocrats,  promoters 
and  grafting  politicians  who  have  been  looting  this 
nation  for  years. 

There  is  one  among  these  illuminating  epistles 
which  I  want  to  burn  in  the  minds  of  the  work- 
ing class  dupes  who  have  been  bowing  in  the  dust 
before  this  blustering  bully  of  the  White  House: 
"Personal. 

"October  1,  1904.-— My  Dear  Mr.  Harriman :  A 
suggestion  has  come  to  me  in  a  round-about  way 
that  you  do  not  think  it  wise  to  come  to  see  me 
in  these  closing  weeks  of  the  campaign,  but  that 
you  are  reluctant  to  refuse,  inasmuch  as  I  have 
asked  you.  Now,  my  dear  sir,  you  and  I  are  prac- 
tical men,  and  you  are  on  the  ground  and  know 
the  conditions  better  than  I  do. 

"If  you  think  there  is  any  danger  of  your  visit 
to  me  causing  trouble,  or  if  you  think  there  is  noth- 
ing special  I  should  be  informed  about,  or  any  mat- 
ter in  which  I  could  give  aid,  why,  of  course,  give 
up  the  visit  for  the  time  being,  and  then,  a  few 
weeks  hence,  before  I  write  my  message,  I  shall 
get  you  to  come  down  to  discuss  certain  govern- 


68  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

ment  matters  not  connected  with  the  campaign. 
With  great  regards,  sincerely  yours, 

(Signed)  "THEODOKE  KOOSEVELT." 

Does  not  this  brand  the  president  with  the  du- 
plicity of  a  Tweed  and  the  cunning  of  a  Quay? 

Would  a  president  who  is  honest  with  the  peo- 
ple clandestinely  consort  with  the  villain  he  char- 
acterizes as  a  liar  and  all  that  is  vicious? 

The  disclosures  made  in  the  secret  correspond- 
ence strip  the  president  of  the  last  shred  of  decep- 
tion with  which  to  cloak  his  perfidy.  The  mask 
is  lifted  and  the  exposure  is  complete.  It  is  in 
the  president's  own  handwriting  in  a  letter  to 
Harriman  that  would  never  have  seen  the  light  had 
not  circumstances  forced  it  upon  the  attention  of 
a  betrayed  people.  It  is  adroitly  phrased,  but  its 
meaning  is  not  in  doubt.  He  knew  Harrimon  then 
as  he  knows  him  now;  wanted  his  boodle  and  in- 
sinuatingly coaxed  him  to  sneak  to  the  White 
House  when  no  one  was  looking,  and  only  after  he 
was  discovered  did  he  denounce  Harriman  as  a 
liar  and  fall  into  his  usual  fit  of  moral  epilepsy. 

From  now  on  there  will  be  a  sharp  decline  in 
the  stock  of  Theodore  Koosevelt.  The  capitalist 
papers  may  continue  to  boom  him  as  the  only  savior 
and  his  corps  of  press  agents  at  the  White  House 
may  continue  to  grind  out  three-column  stories 
about  the  awful  conspiracy  of  his  "trusty"  friends 
to  ruin  him,  but  his  bubble  is  pricked  and  the  cheap 
glory  in  which  he  reveled  is  departing  forever. 

The  people  have  been  sadly  deceived  for  a  time, 
but  the  march  of  events  is  opening  their  eyes. 


LABOR   AND   FREEDOM.  G9 

Only  the  very  ignorant  and  foolish  believe  that 
a  president  who  has  surrounded  himself  with  Wall 
Street  darlings  as  cabinet  ministers  has  any  serious 
designs  on  the  trusts. 

The  Ryan,  Boot  and  Roosevelt  combination  Is 
ideal.  It  speaks  for  itself,  and  with  such  shining 
lights  as  Taft,  Cortelyou,  Knox  and  Paul  Morton 
surrounding  it,  all  lingering  doubt  is  removed,  and 
the  fools'  paradise  is  in  the  full  blaze  of  its  glory. 

Space  will  not  permit  a  review  of  the  personnel 
of  the  president's  official  family,  at  least  two  of 
whom,  had  the  law  been  enforced,  would  now  be 
in  penitentiary. 

The  story  of  President  Roosevelt  and  Paul  Mor- 
ton, if  truthfully  told,  would  make  a  luminous 
chapter  in  railroad  rascality  and  political  jobbery. 
It  was  to  this  notorious  strike-breaker  and  self- 
confessed  criminal  that  Roosevelt  issued  a  bill  of 
moral  rectitude  long  as  Pope's  essay  that  landed 
him  into  the  eighty-thousand-dollars-a-year  insur- 
ance graft  he  now  holds  down. 

There  is  in  this  "promotion"  the  very  climax 
of  the  irony  of  boodle. 

Paul  Morton,  who  began  as  a  strike-breaker  on 
the  C.  B.  &  Q.,  and  reared  a  monument  to  theft 
at  Hutchinson,  Kan.,  and  left  his  trail  of  crime 
all  the  way  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Pacific, 
is  fit,  indeed,  to  be  the  cabinet  associate  and  con- 
fidential chum  of  a  president  who  puts  him  at  the 
head  of  the  company  whose  funds  were  stolen  to 
buy  his  election. 

William  H.  Taft  is  another  of  the  elect,  and  it 


70  LABOR  AND   FREEDOM. 

is  easy  to  understand  why  Roosevelt  has  decided  to 
make  this  illustrious  son  his  successor  as  president 
of  the  United  States  and  is  now  grooming  him 
with  the  patronage  of  the  national  administration. 
Taft  is  a  man  after  Eoosevelt's  own  heart.  Among 
his  early  acts  as  a  judge  he  fined  the  bricklayers  of 
Cincinnati  two  thousand  dollars  for  going  on  a 
strike;  he  was  next  whirled  to  Toledo  by  special 
train  and  ordered  by  the  Toledo,  Ann  Arbor  and 
North  Michigan  railroad  to  issue  an  injunction 
binding  and  gagging  its  striking  engineers  and 
firemen  and  locking  their  leader  up  in  jail  and  he 
complied  with  alacrity.  From  that  time  on  it  has 
been  smooth  sailing  for  the  accommodating  judge 
and  there  is  not  a  bloated  plutocrat  in  the  land 
who  would  not  hail  with  joy  the  election  of  William 
Taft  as  president ;  he  would  be  almost  as  acceptable 
to  these  vultures  as  Roosevelt  himself. 

The  manner  in  which  President  Roosevelt  ma- 
nipulates the  supreme  court  by  bestowing  lucrative 
offices  upon  the  sons  and  other  relatives  and  friends 
of  its  dignitaries  can  only  be  hinted  at  here,  but 
will  receive  due  attention  later  on.  The  case  of 
ex-Senator  Burton  is  an  instance  in  point.  Other 
senators  had  taken  thousands  in  similar  cases  to 
Burton's  paltry  few  hundred  dollars,  but  Burton 
was  marked  by  Roosevelt  for  refusing  to  crook  the 
knee  to  the  sugar  trust  and  pursued  with  merciless 
ferocity  until  he  was  lodged  behind  prison  bars. 

The  president  did  not  have  a  call  to  "go  after" 
his  old  friends,  Chauncey  Depew  and  Thomas 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  71 

Platt,  with  the  same  virtuous  passion  to  see  crime 
punished  and  criminals  jailed. 

When  Roosevelt  was  making  his  continental 
campaign  in  the  palatial  special  trains  furnished 
free  by  the  railroad  trust  he  stopped  at  Abilene, 
Kan.,  the  home  of  the  then  Senator  Burton,  and 
opened  his  speech  there  in  these  words :  "I  am 
glad  to  be  at  the  home  of  the  senior  senator  from 
Kansas  and  am  delighted  to  meet  and  greet  hi? 
neighbors  and  friends.  I  want  to  say  that  no 
man  in  this  world  has  done  more,  and  I  had  almost 
said,  as  much,  to  place  me  where  I  am  now,  than 
your  distinguished  senator." 

Fine  way  the  president  had  of  showing  his  grati- 
tude. Burton  should  have  known  better  and  taken 
warning.  Whenever  Roosevelt  gets  that  near  to 
a  man  something  is  going  to  happen.  "My  dear" 
is  then  due  to  be  metamorphosed  with  startling 
suddenness  into  an  "atrocious  liar." 

Roosevelt  can  brook  no  rivalry.  He  is  the  self- 
appointed  central  luminary  in  the  solar  system.  All 
others  must  be  contented  with  being  fire-flies.  He 
must  violate  all  traditions  and  smash  all  precedents. 
He  is  spectacular  beyond  the  wildest  dreams.  He 
must  have  the  center  of  the  stage  and  hold  the  un- 
divided attention  of  the  audience.  Any  stunt  will 
do  when  the  interest  lags.  A  familiar  turn  with  a 
prize-fighter  or  a  "gun-man"  is  always  good  for 
an  encore.  Nothing  is  overlooked.  A  dash  to 
Panama  with  a  fleet  of  battle-ships  and  a  battery 
of  cameras  and  a  squad  of  artists  and  reporters  is 
good  for  thousands  of  columns  about  the  marvel- 


72  LABOR   AND    FREEDOM. 

cms  virility  and  fertility  of  the  greatest  president 
since  Washington.  He  is  followed  with  minute 
and  eager  details  as  he  darts  from  cellar  to  roof, 
inspects  every  shingle,  wears  a  solemn  expression, 
throws  a  shovelful  of  coal  into  the  furnace,  snatches 
a  bite  from  a  workingman's  pail,  shakes  hands  with 
a  startled  section  man  and  is  off  like  a  flash  to  look 
after  some  other  section  of  the  planet  that  it  may 
not  drop  out  of  its  shining  orbit. 

Mighty  savior  of  the  human  race ! 

Such  is  Theodore  Eoosevelt,  the  president  who 
condemns  workingmen  as  murderers  when  they  are 
objectionable  to  the  trusts  that  control  his  admin- 
istration. 

Archbishop  Ireland,  the  plutocratic  prelate,  will 
cheerfully  certify  to  Eoosevelt  as  the  anointed  of 
the  Lord.  And  this  will  make  another  interesting 
chapter  for  a  later  review :  a  chapter  that  will  deal 
with  Ireland  as  the  political  as  well  as  spiritual 
adviser  of  "Jim"  Hill  and  the  Great  Northern,  and 
of  court  decisions  awarding  him  thousands  of  acres 
of  land  and  making  of  the  alleged  follower  of  the 
Tramp  of  Galilee  a  multi-millionaire;  a  chapter 
that  will  tell  of  a  high  priest  sounding  the  political 
keynote  to  his  benighted  followers  in  exchange  for 
a  promised  voucher  for  a  red  hat  to  be  worn  in  a 
land  of  freedom  in  which  the  state  and  church  are 
absolutely  divorced. 

Only  a  few  of  the  facts  about  Eoosevelt  and  hi? 
regime  have  been  here  ptated,  but  enough  to  satisfy 
all  honest  men  that  Theodore  Roosevelt  is  ike. 
Friend  of  the  Enemies  and  the  Enem-y  of  the 
Friends  of  this  Republic. 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  73 

INDUSTRIAL  AND  SOCIAL  DEMOCRACY. 

American    Socialist,    May    27,    1915. 

First  of  all,  allow  me  to  quote  with  approval  the 
following  paragraph  from  "An  Introduction  to 
Sociology"  by  Arthur  Morrow  Lewis :  "*  *  * 
the  greatest  single  achievement  of  the  science  of  so- 
ciology is  the  concept  of  society,  not  as  a  collection 
of  institutions.,  and  sociology  as  an  explanatory 
catalog  or  inventory — after  the  fashion  of  Spen- 
cer, but  as  a  process  of  development,  and  the  sci- 
ence of  sociology  as  the  analysis  and  explanation  of 
the  process." 

Also  the  following  from  an  essay  on  Eevolution 
by  George  D.  Herron :  "Every  revolution  or  true 
reform,  every  new  and  commanding  faith,  is  in 
the  direction  of  man's  becoming  his  own  evolver 
and  creator.  Every  uplifting  light  or  law  perforces, 
in  the  place  of  the  evolution  that  is  blind  and 
chanceful,  an  evolution  that  is  chosen  and  hu- 
manly directed." 

There  is  still  room  for  reform  and  betterment  in 
the  present  social  system,  but  this  is  of  minor  con- 
sequence compared  to  the  world's  crying  need  for 
industrial  and  social  reorganization. 


The  next  great  change  in  history  will  be,  must 
be,  the  socialization  of  the  means  of  our  common 
life. 

Privately  owned  industry  and  production  for  in- 
dividual profit  are  no  longer  compatible  with  social 
progress  and  have  ceased  to  work  out  to  humane 
and  civilized  ends. 


74  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

With  all  its  marvelous  progress  through  inven- 
tion and  discovery  and  all  its  monumental  achieve- 
ments in  the  arts  and  sciences,  this  poor  world  of 
ours  -has  not  yet  learned  how  to  feed  itself.  That 
is  the  problem  of  problems  now  confronting  us 
more  and  more  insistently  and  until  that  is  solved 
the  world  is  halted  and  it  will  either  resume  its 
march  toward  industrial  and  social  democracy  or 
be  shaken  to  its  foundations  and  into  possible 
chaos  by  violent  explosion. 

There  is  no  longer  the  shadow  of  an  excuse  for 
a  hungry  being.  All  the  laws,  all  the  materials 
and  all  the  forces  are  at  hand  and  easily  available 
for  the  production  of  all  things  needed  to  provide 
food,  raiment  and  shelter  for  every  man,  woman 
and  child,  thus  putting  an  end  to  the  poverty  and 
misery,  widespread  and  appalling,  which  now  shock 
and  sicken  humanity  and  impeach  our  vaunted 
civilization.  But  these  tools  and  materials  and 
forces  must  be  released  from  private  ownership  and 
control,  socialized,  democratized,  and  set  in  opera- 
tion for  the  common  good  of  all  instead  of  -the  pri- 
vate profit  of  the  few. 


It  is  well  stated,  "that  civilization  is  at  present 
rudimentary,  and  that  it  is  to  develop  indefinitely." 

l^ow,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  crops  this  year 
(1914)  are  the  most  abundant  ever  produced,  that 
there  is  no  market  for  the  almost  sixteen  million 
bales  of  cotton  lying  in  the  warehouses,  while  at  the 
same  time  there  are  millions  of  unemployed  in  the 
land  who  are  without  food  and  without  clothing 


LABOR   AND   FREEDOM.  75 

and  who,  with  their  wives  and  children,  are  doomed 
to  indescribable  suffering;  in  view  of  this  solemn 
and  indisputable  fact  it  would  seem  that  there  could 
be  but  one  opinion  among  students  and  thinkers 
as  to  the  one  great,  vital  and  essential  thing  to 
do  for  the  relief  of  our  common  humanity  and  for 
the  promotion  of  the  world's  progress  and  civiliza- 
tion, and  that  that  one  thing  is  the  one  to  be 
emphasized  with  all  the  power  at  our  command. 

A  privately  owned  world  can  never  be  a  free 
world  and  a  society  based  upon  warring  classes 
cannot  stand. 

Such  a  world  is  a  world  of  strife  and  hate  and 
such  a  society  can  exist  only  by  means  of  militarism 
and  physical  force. 


The  education  of  the  people,  not  the  few  alone, 
but  the  entire  mass  in  the  principles  of  industrial 
democracy  and  along  the  lines  of  social  develop- 
ment is  the  task  of  the  people  to  he  emphasized 
and  that  task — let  it  be  impressed  upon  them — can 
be  performed  only  by  themselves. 

The  cultured  few  can  never  educate  the  uncul- 
tured many.  All  history  attests  the  fact  that  all 
the  few  have  ever  done  for  the  many  is  to  keep 
them  in  ignorance  and  servitude  and  live  out  of 
their  labor. 

To  stir  the  masses,  to  appeal  to  their  higher, 
better  selves,  to  set  them  thinking  for  themselves, 
and  to  hold  ever  before  them  the  ideal  of  mutual 
kindness  and  good  will,  based  upon  mutual  inter- 


76  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

ests,  is  to  render  real  service  to  the  cause  of  hu- 
manity. 

To  quote  Herron  once  more: 

"Socialism  is  a  deliberate  proposal  to  lay  the 
will  of  man  upon  the  unfolding  processes  and  ends 
of  nature  and  history.  It  invokes  the  faith  that 
shall  be  equal  to  the  acceptance  of  its  proposal — 
of  its  supreme  challenge  to  the  universe." 


A  MESSAGE  TO  THE  CHILDREN. 

Campaign    Leaflet,    National    Campaign,    1912. 

The  Socialist  party  is  the  only  party  that  has  the 
children  at  heart;  the  only  party  that  takes  them 
into  its  confidence ;  the  only  party  that  has  a  mes- 
sage for  them  in  a  campaign  year. 

In  my  travels  about  the  country  I  have  met 
many  thousands  of  little  children  and  their  fresh 
and  eager  faces  have  always  given  me  joy  and  their 
merry  voices  have  filled  me  with  delight  and  made 
me  stronger  for  my  work. 

These  children  are  not  yet  old  enough  to  join  the 
Socialist  party  and  have  an  active  part  in  its 
great  work,  but  they  are  old  enough  to  understand 
why  their  parents  belong  to  it,  and  why  they  are 
pround  of  their  card  of  membership,  and  of  the  red 
button  they  wear,  to  show  that  they  are  socialists 
and  that  as  socialists  they  are  working  hand  in 
hand  with  thousands  and  thousands  of  others  to 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  77 

change  things  so  that  this  world  may  be  a  better, 
kinder  and  sweeter  world  for  us  all  to  live  in. 

Now  let  me  talk  directly  as  1  may  to  the  more 
than  thirty  millions  of  children  and  young  folks 
in  our  country  who  are  less  than  eighteen  years  of 
age.  I  fancy  I  can  see  them  all  spread  out  in  all 
directions,  far  as  the  eye  can  reach,  and  farther  and 
farther  still  to  the  very  shores  of  the  seas  and  lakes 
and  gulf  that  bound  our  western  continent. 

What  a  wonderful  audience  I  am  about  to  ad- 
dress !  Not  a  grown  person  in  it.  Only  children. 
Millions  of  them  and  all  eager  to  hear  the  message- 
that  socialism  has  to  offer  to  the  child-world. 

My  dear  little  children,  I  am  sure  you  will  un- 
derstand me  when  I  say  that  in  speaking  to  you 
of  socialism  I  feel  very  near  to  all  of  you  and  I 
know  you  will  believe  me  when  I  tell  you  that  1 
would  if  I  could  make  you  all  happy  and  keep  you 
sweet  and  loving  toward  each  other  all  your  lives. 

Most  of  you  are  the  children  of  the  poor,  some 
of  the  well-to-do,  and  a  few  of  the  rich,  but  all  of 
you  are  the  children  of  the  same  Father  and  all  of 
you  are  sisters  and  brothers  in  the  same  great 
family  of  humankind. 

If  any  of  you  feel  that  you  are  better  than  others 
because  you  wear  better  clothes  or  live  in  better 
houses  or  go  in  what  you  think  is  "better  society," 
it  is  because  your  young  minds  and  hearts  have 
been  tainted  by  wrong  example  and  wrong  educa- 
tion. It  is  this  wicked  feeling  that  corrupts  the 
conscience  and  hardens  the  heart  and  begets  the 


78  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

envy  and  hate  of  our  fellow-beings,  instead  of  their 
love  and  good  will. 

When  that  best  friend  the  children  ever  had  on 
earth  said,  "Suffer  little  children  and  forbid  them 
not,  to  come  unto  me;  for  such  is  the  kingdom  of 
heaven"  he  meant  all  children,  poor  and  rich,  but 
especially  the  poor.  He  loved  and  pitied  them  be- 
cause of  their  poverty  and  suffering. 

He  himself  had  been  born  in  a  manger  and  when 
he  was  grown  up  he  said  sorrowfully  that  "he  had 
not  where  to  lay  his  head."  He  did  not  despise 
little  children  because  the}'  were  poor  and  neg- 
lected and  shabbily  dressed  but  he  loved  them  all 
the  more;  and  as  he  looked  down  upon  them  his 
heart  melted  with  compassion  and  the  tears  of  ten- 
derness filled  his  eyes:  and  then  he  became  grave 
and  his  fair  brow  grew  dark  with  wrath  as  he 
thought  of  those  who  sat  in  rich  church  pews  and 
piously  thanked  the  Lord  that  they  were  not  as 
other  people.  He  denounced  them  as  hypocrites  for 
pretending  to  be  religious  while  they  robbed  the 
poor  and  turned  the  little  children  into  the  street 
to  suffer  hunger  and  fall  into  evil  ways. 

Nearly  twenty  centuries  have  passed  since  the 
suffering  poor  heard  with  gladness  the  message  of 
the  Lowly  Xazarene  and  since  he  was  moved  to 
tears  by  the  sight  of  the  little  children  of  the 
street,  but  the  world  has  not  yet  learned  the  mean- 
ing of  his  tender  and  touching  words,  "Suffer  little 
children,  and  forbid  them  not,  to  come  unto  me; 
for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  If  he  were 
to  walk  the  streets  of  New  York  or  Chicago,  or 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  79 

Lawrence,  Massachusetts,  or  any  of  the  cities  when: 
the  mills  and  sweatshops  are  filled  with  child  slaves 
— as  he  once  walked  the  streets  of  .Jerusalem — he 
would  grow  sick  at  heart  as  he  saw  the  little  ones 
he  so  loved,  pale  and  wan  and  worn,  harnessed  to 
monstrous  machines  and  slowly  put  to  death  to 
swell  the  profits  of  the  greedy  mill  owners  who  sit 
in  the  rich  pews  of  the  synagogue,  as  did  the  phari- 
sees  he  scourged  without  mercy  twenty  centuries 
ago. 

The  children  of  the  working  people  have  always 
been  poor  because  the  world  has  never  been  just. 
For  ages  and  ages  those  who  have  build  ed  the 
houses,  cultivated  the  fields,  raised  the  crops,  spun 
the  wool,  woven  the  cloth,  supplied  the  food  we 
eat  and  the  clothes  we  wear,  and  furnished  the 
homes  we  live  in,  have  been  the  poor  and  despised, 
while  those  who  profited  by  their  labor  and  con- 
sumed the  good  things  they  produced,  have  been 
the  rich  and  respectable. 

Jesus  himself  was  a  carpenter's  son  and  suffered 
the  poverty  of  his  class  and  when  he  grew  up  it 
was  not  the  rich  and  respectable,  but  the  poor  and 
despised  who  loved  him,  and  opened  their  arms  to 
receive  him,  and  heard  gladly  his  tender  and  com- 
forting ministrations.  He  was  one  of  them  in  pov- 
erty and  suffering  and  in  all  his  loving  anrl  sell- 
denying  life  he  never  forgot  them.  Had  he  de- 
serted the  poor  from  whom  he  sprang,  had  he  gone 
over  to  the  rich  as  their  preacher,  or  their  judge, 
or  their  lawyer  or  teacher  or  scribe — as  so  many 
of  his  pretended  followers  have  done  and  are  still 


80  LABOR   AND    FREEDOM. 

doing — he  never  would  have  been  crucified,  nor 
would  the  world  today  know  that  he  had  ever  lived. 

It  was  because,  and  only  because,  Jesus  loved  and 
served  the  poor  and  rebuked  the  rich  who  robbed 
them,  and  threatened  to  array  them  against  their 
rich  despoilers,  that  he  was  condemned  to  die  and 
that  the  cruel  nails  were  driven  into  his  hands  and 
feet  on  the  cross  at  Calvary. 

Jesus  taught  that  the  earth  and  the  air  and  the 
sea  and  sky  and  all  the  beauty  and  fulness  thereof 
were  for  all  the  children  of  men ;  that  they  should 
all  equally  enjoy  the  riches  of  nature  and  dwell  to- 
gether in  peace,  bear  one  another's  burdens  and 
love  one  another,  and  that  is  what  socialism  teaches 
and  why  the  rich  thieves  who  have  laid  hold  of  the 
earth  and  its  bounties  would  crucify  the  socialists 
as  those  other  robbers  of  the  poor  crucified  Jesus 
two  thousand  years  ago. 

Now  let  us  see  what  message  the  Socialist  party 
has  for  the  children  and  why  all  children  should  be 
socialists  and  help  to  speed  the  day  when  the 
brotherhood  of  socialism  shall  prevail  throughout 
the  earth. 

But  first  let  me  say  that  the  Socialist  party  has 
reason  to  know  that  the  children  have  great  influ- 
ence when  they  become  interested  in  a  given  work 
and  set  their  hearts  on  doing  that  work.  The  So- 
cialist party  knows  better  than  to  ignore  the  chil- 
dren as  if  they  were  china  dolls  or  stuffed  teddy 
bears,  as  all  the  other  parties  do,  for  it  knows  by 
what  they  have  already  done  that  when  once  they 
get  fairly  started  they  will  make  the  air  hum  like 


LABOK   AND   FREEDOM.  81 

swarms  of  bees  with  the  glad  tidings  of  socialism. 

The  little  boys  and  girls  who  have  already  be- 
come socialists  are  among  the  busiest  workers  for 
our  party  and  they  love  so  well  to  work  for  social- 
ism that  it  is  play  to  them  and  fills  their  hearts 
with  joy.  They  wear  the  red  button  and  they  know 
why  it  is  red  and  what  its  meaning  is;  they  tack 
up  bills  and  distribute  dodgers  advertising  our 
meetings ;  they  sell  tickets,  take  up  collections,  act 
as  ushers,  provide  the  soap-box  for  the  corner 
speaker,  carry  chairs  for  the  women  so  they  may 
sit  in  comfort  after  their  day's  work,  go  around 
among  the  neighbors  and  remind  them  of  the  meet- 
ing and  not  to  forget  to  attend,  sell  socialist  books, 
papers  and  pamphlets,  and  do  a  score  of  other 
things  which  are  just  as  useful  in  their  way  as  the 
speech  of  the  orator  that  wins  the  applause  of  the 
people. 

Now  the  Socialist  party  is  the  only  party  in  the 
world  that  wants  to  put  an  end  once  and  forever 
to  all  kinds  of  child  labor  and  to  have  it  so  that  all 
children,  white  and  black,  without  a  single  excep- 
tion, shall  be  allowed  to  grow  up  in  the  free  air, 
\ritfi  plenty  of  time  for  mirth  and  play;  that  they 
shall  all  have  decent  homes  to  live  in,  comfortable 
beds  to  sleep  in,  plenty  of  good  food  to  eat,  plenty 
of  good  clothes  to  wear  and  that  when  they  reach 
the  proper  age  they  shall  go  to  school  and  college 
and  continue  their  course  until  they  have  obtained 
a  sound  and  practical  education.  Then  they  will 
have  strong,  healthy  bodies,  trained  minds  and 
skilled  hands,  and  not  only  enter  cheerfully  upon 


82  LABOK   AND   FREEDOM. 

the  duties  of  life,  but  be  certain  of  making  it  a  suc- 
cess. 

If  you  listen  to  the  old  fogies  who  still  belong 
to  the  parties  their  grandfathers  did  and  who  have 
not  moved  an  inch  from  their  grandfathers'  graves, 
they  will  tell  you  that  socialists  are  foolish  people 
and  that  what  they  propose  never  can  be  done. 
That  is  what  the  fogies  of  every  age  have  always 
said.  They  are  the  "wise"  people  who  do  things  in 
the  same  way  that  their  dead  grandparents  did  be- 
fore them,  who  never  change  their  minds,  never 
accept  a  new  idea,  never  grow,  and  who  are  always 
dead  long  before  they  are  buried  and  forgotten  the 
day  after  the  funeral.  Whatever  you  may  be  I  beg 
of  you  not  to  be  a  fogy,  nor  to  follow  a  fogy's 
solemn  advice.  His  brain  has  ceased  to  work — if 
it  ever  did  work.  He  is  mentally  stagnant  and 
moss-covered  and  votes  the  same  old  ticket  with  no 
more  idea  of  what  he  is  voting  for  than  a  wooden 
Indian. 

The  Socialist  party  says  there  have  got  to  be 
some  changes  and  has  set  about  making  them,  or  at 
least  getting  ready  to  make  them.  It  says  that  the 
world  is  big  enough  for  all  the  people  that  are  in 
it,  with  plenty  of  room  to  spare  for  groves  and 
parks  and  playgrounds;  that  there  is  land  enough 
to  go  around  without  crowding;  that  there  are 
farms  enough,  or  can  be  easily  provided,  to  raise 
all  we  can  eat,  so  that  no  child  in  all  the  world 
need  to  go  hungry ;  that  there  is  plenty  of  coal  and 
iron,  oil  and  gas,  gold  and  silver  and  other  min 
erals  and  metals,  stored  in  the  earth ;  that  there  are 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  88 

forests  and  mountains  and  water  courses  galore; 
that  there  are  mills  and  mines  and  factories  and 
ships  and  railways  and  telegraphs,  and  the  power 
supplied  free  by  nature  to  run  them  all ;  that  there 
are  millions  of  men  and  women  ready  to  do  all  the 
work  that  may  be  required  to  build  homes.,  raise 
crops,  bake  bread — and  cake  too — weave  cloth, 
make  clothes  and  everything  else  that  is  necessary 
for  everybody,  and  have  time  enough  besides  to 
build  schools  and  provide  playgrounds  for  every 
last  one  of  the  children,  with  plenty  of  toys  thrown 
in  to  make  this  earth  a  children's  paradise. 

Now  why  should  not  just  these  things  come  to 
pass  and  why  should  not  you  children  help  us 
speed  the  day  when  they  shall  come  to  pass  ? 

Everything  you  can  possibly  think  of  to  make 
this  earth  sweet  and  beautiful  and  to  make  life  a 
blessed  joy  for  us  all  is  within  our  reach.  The 
raw  materials  are  at  our  feet;  the  forces  to  fashion 
them  into  forms  of  beauty  and  use  are  at  our 
finger  tips.  We  have  but  to  put  ourselves  in  har- 
mony with  nature  and  with  one  another  to  spread 
far  and  wide  the  gospel  of  life  and  love  and  once 
more  hear  "the  sons  of  God  shout  for  joy." 

Socialists  not  only  dream  of  the  good  day  com- 
ing when  the  world  shall  know  that  men  are  broth- 
ers and  that  women  are  sisters  to  each  other,  but 
they  are  at  work  with  all  their  hearts  and  all  their 
heads  and  hands  to  make  that  dream  come  true. 

If  you  want  to  know  what  the  plans  of  the  so- 
cialists are  in  detail  read  their  platform,  attend 
their  lectures  and  study  their  literature. 


84  LABOtt   AND   FREEDOM. 

Socialism  is  the  greatest  thing  in  all  the  world 
today  aiid  the  boys  and  girls  of  this  generation 
who  will  be  remembered  in  the  next  are  those  who 
are  clear-eyed  enough  to  see  that  socialism  is  com- 
ing and  are  at  the  battle-front  fighting  bravely  to 
overcome  the  prejudice  against  it  and  to  pave  the 
way  for  it  so  that  it  may  come  soon  and  in  peace 
and  order. 

Many  of  us  who  have  been  long  in  service  will 
not  be  here  when  the  bells  peal  forth  the  joyous 
tidings  that  socialism  has  triumphed  and  that  the 
people  are  free,  but  the  children  that  now  are  will 
live  to  see  it  and  in  the  day  of  their  rejoicing  they 
will  not  forget  those  who  toiled  without  recom- 
pense that  they  might  live  without  dread  of  pov- 
erty or  fear  of  want. 

As  we  look  about  us  today  we  see  that  the  world 
is  filled  with  suffering  and  despair  and  when  we 
come  to  look  into  the  cause  of  it  we  find  that  it  is 
a  reproach  to  us  all.  As  I  write  the  news  comes 
of  the  fierce  battle  that  is  being  fought  between  ten 
thousand  hungry  miners  in  West  Virginia  and  the 
thugs  and  ex-convicts  and  murderers  armed  by  the 
coal  corporations  to  force  the  strikers  back  into 
their  dismal  and  hopeless  pits.  The  battle  has  al- 
ready lasted  two  days.  Many  on  both  sides  have 
been  killed,  but  the  capitalist  papers  are  doing  all 
they  can  to  hush  it  up. 

Long  ago  the  miners  were  evicted  from  the  com- 
pany's wretched  hovels.  They  and  their  wives  and 
children  live  in  tented  fields  and  the  brutal  guards 
have  even  driven  the  women  and  children  from 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  85 

there  into  the  wilderness  to  starve  that  the  strike 
may  be  broken  and  the  miners  compelled  to  go  back 
to  work  at  the  terms  of  their  greedy  and  heartless 
masters. 

And  why  is  this  awful  battle  raging  and  human 
beings  murdering  each  other  as  if  they  were  wild 
beasts?  Because  a  few  gluttonous  slave  owners 
like  Henry  Gassaway  Davis  and  the  Watsons  and 
Elkinses  who  dwell  in  gorgeous  palaces  on  vast 
estates  occupying  whole  mountain  ranges,  privately 
own  the  mines  and  minerals  which  were  intended 
for  all,  and  consequently  the  thousands  of  miners 
and  their  wives  and  children  are  at  their  mercy, 
and  when  they  meekly  asked  for  five  per  cent  more 
wages  so  their  families  would  not  suffer  for  bread 
the  brutal  lords  of  the  mines  sent  out  their  private 
army  of  assassins  to  hunt  them  down  and  kill  them 
as  if  they  were  mad  dogs. 

The  Socialist  party  says  that  those  mines  should 
be  owned  by  all  the  pople  and  that  is  what  will 
come  to  pass  when  the  socialists  get  into  power,  and 
then  the  green  hills  of  West  Virginia  and  other 
states  will  no  longer  echo  with  the  rifle  shots  of 
corporation  assassins,  nor  run  red  with  the  blood 
of  honest  workingmen  slain  to  appease  the  greed 
of  their  soulless  masters. 

In  February  last,  four  boys  were  hanged  in  Chi- 
cago. The  oldest  was  twenty-one,  the  youngest 
barely  out  of  his  childhood.  They  had  held  up  and 
robbed  and  murdered  a  poor  truck  farmer  for  the 
little  money  he  had  on  his  person.  Not  one  of 
these  boys  ever  had  a  decent  home.  They  were 


86  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

born  in  poverty,  reared  in  ignorance,  and  sur- 
rounded by  vice  and  filth. 

This  is  cultivating  crime  and  reaping  the  har- 
vest. We  socialists  weep  as  we  think  of  the  cruel 
fate  of  those  four  poor,  friendless  boys  who  died  on 
the  gallows  while  they  were  still  in  their  childhood, 
because  the  world  has  not  yet  learned  that  there  is 
greater  profit  in  raising  children  than  there  is  in 
raising  hogs. 

The  frightful  stories  of  the  little  children  in  the 
mills  of  Lawrence  and  the  cruel  suffering  they  en- 
dured is  still  fresh  in  the  public  memory.  When 
the  poor  and  despairing  mothers,  their  hearts 
wrung  with  agony  and  their  eyes  blinded  with 
tears,  attempted  to  save  their  children  from  starva- 
tion by  placing  them  in  the  keeping  of  sympathiz- 
ing friends,  they  were  beaten,  insulted,  and  with 
babies  at  their  breasts  thrown  into  jail,  bleeding 
and  stunned,  by  the  brutal  police  acting  under  or- 
ders from  the  far  more  brutal  mill  owners. 

The  world  will  never  know  the  suffering  and  ter- 
ror these  poor  working  people — especially  the 
women  and  children — had  to  endure  for  daring  to 
ask  the  millionaire  mill  owners  for  a  pittance  more 
in  return  for  their  labor  to  keep  the  wolf  of  hunger 
from  their  gloomy  hovels. 

When  the  Socialist  party  gets  into  power  those 
mills  at  Lawrence  and  all  others  like  them  will  be 
taken  over  by  the  people  and  operated  for  the  good 
of  all,  and  then  the  workers  will  keep  the  wealth 
they  prod/uce  for  themselves,  instead  of  turning  it 
over  to  the  greedy  mill  bosses ;  they  will  have  decent 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  87 

homes  to  live  in,  food  in  plenty  on  their  tables,  and 
their  children  will  go  to  school  to  be  properly  edu- 
cated instead  of  to  the  mills  to  be  ground  into 
profits  to  gorge  their  idle  owners. 

In  March  last,  Mrs.  L.  F.  Jellson  of  Salem,  Ore- 
gon, gave  poison  to  each  of  her  four  little  children, 
her  own  offspring,  because  they  were  starving  and 
she  was  poor  and  had  no  way  to  get  them  bread. 
She  then  poisoned  herself  and  all  she  asked  in  the 
note  she  left  was  that  she  and  her  darling  children 
be  buried  together.  This  poor  heart-broken  soul 
was  driven  to  destroy  herself  and  her  precious  bab^ 
because  the  world  as  it  now  is  would  not  allow  them 
to  live. 

Think  for  just  a  moment  of  all  the  food  there  is 
in  the  world  and  all  there  might  be  and  then  tell 
me  if  socialists  are  wrong  and  foolish  and  wicked 
for  saying  that  the  self-murder  of  this  poor  woman 
and  the  murder  of  her  children  is  a  terrible  crime 
of  which  society  is  guilty  and  for  which  there  is  no 
excuse  on  earth  or  in  heaven. 

A  recent  investigation  showed  that  in  the  City 
of  St.  Louis  there  are  16,000  young  women  who 
receive  as  wage-earners  less  than  $8  per  week  and 
over  3,000  who  receive  from  $3  to  $4  per  week. 

It  is  easy  to  see  from  this  why  so  many  little- 
girls  and  younger  women  are  forced  to  enter  upon 
the  path  which  leads  to  shame  and  sorrow  and 
which  seldom  bears  the  impress  of  returning  foot- 
steps. 

When  the  giant  Titanic  met  her  fate,  fifty  little 
bellboys  went  down  with  her  to  the  bottom  of  the 


88  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

sea.  They  were  ordered,  according  to  the  account, 
to  their  regular  posts  in  the  main  cabin  and  warned 
by  their  captain  not  to  get  into  the  way  of  the 
escaping  passengers.  James  Humphries,  as  quar- 
termaster and  eye  witness  said,  "throughout  the 
first  hour  of  confusion  and  terror  these  lads  sat 
quietly  on  their  benches.  Not  one  of  them  at- 
tempted to  enter  a  lifeboat.  Not  one  of  them  was 
saved/' 

Can  you  read  this  without  being  moved  to  tears  ? 
Brave,  noble  little  lads !  I  almost  feel  as  if  it  had 
been  a  privilege  to  go  down  with  these  great  little 
souls  to  their  watery  grave. 

The  little  boys  who  perished  here  were  poor  boys, 
many  of  them  without  fathers,  and  others  obliged 
to  support  widowed  mothers  and  little  brothers  and 
sisters  younger  than  themselves. 

What  a  lesson  this  touching,  deeply  pathetic  in- 
cident teaches  and  what  a  world  of  meaning  there 
is  in  the  ?ad  circumstances  of  their  tragic  death ! 

Had  they  not  been  poor  children,  little  waifs, 
they  would  not  have  been  locked  in  the  cabin  to 
perish  like  rats.  They  Arould  not,  in  fact,  have 
been  there  at  all,  and  had  it  not  been  for  the  pride 
and  pomp,  the  greed  and  luxury  that  paraded  the 
upper  deck,  the  Titanic  never  would  have  gone  to 
the  bottom  of  the  sea. 

And  now,  my  children,  I  must  come  to  a  close. 
I  have  taken  up  much  of  your  time,  but  I  have  only 
been  able  to  trace  in  barest  outline  what  the  So- 
cialist party  is  organized  for,  what  it  aims  to  do, 
and  will  do,  and  why  the  children,  above  all,  should 


LABOR   AND   FREEDOM.  89 

vie  with  each  other  in  helping  it  to  grow  and  speed- 
ing the  happy  day  of  its  success. 

When  that  day  comes  the  rejoicing  people  will 
realize  that  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  so  long  prayed 
for,  has  been  set  up  here  on  earth  in  the  social 
brotherhood  of  all  mankind. 


..* 


SOCIAL  REFORM. 

While  there  is  a  lower  class  I  am  in  it; 
While  there  is  a  criminal  class  I  am  of  it ; 
While  there  is  a  soul  in  prison  I  am  not  free. 


DANGER  AHEAD. 

International    Socialist    Review,    January,    1911. 

The  large  increase  in  the  Socialist  vote  in  the 
late  national  and  state  elections  is  quite  naturally 
hailed  with  elation  and  rejoicing  by  party  mem- 
bers, but  I  feel  prompted  to  remark,,  in  the  light 
of  some  personal  observations  made  during  the 
campaign,  that  it  is  not  entirely  a  matter  of  jubila- 
tion. I  am  not  given  to  pessimism,  or  captious 
criticism,  and  yet  I  cannot  but  feel  that  some  of 
the  votes  placed  to  our  credit  this  year  were  ob- 
tained by  methods  not  consistent  with  the  prin- 


90  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

ciples  of  a  revolutionary  party,  and  in  the  long 
run  will  do  more  harm  than  good. 

I  yield  to  no  one  in  my  desire  to  see  the  party 
grow  and  the  vote  increase,  but  in  my  zeal  I  do  not 
lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  healthy  growth  and  a 
substantial  vote  depend  upon  efficient  organization, 
the  self-education  and  self-discipline  of  the  mem- 
bership, and  that  where  these  are  lacking,  an  in- 
flated vote  secured  by  compromising  methods,  can 
only  be  hurtful  to  the  movement. 

The  danger  I  see  ahead  is  that  the  Socialist  party 
at  this  stage,  and  under  existing  conditions,  is  apt 
to  attract  elements  which  it  cannot  assimilate,  and 
that  it  may  be  either  weighted  down,  or  torn 
asunder  with  internal  strife,  or  that  it  may  become 
permeated  and  corrupted  with  the  spirit  of  bour- 
geois reform  to  an  extent  that  will  practically  de- 
stroy its  virility  and  efficiency  as  a  revolutionary 
organization. 

To  my  mind  the  working  class  character  and  the 
revolutionary  integrity  of  the  Socialist  party  are 
of  first  importance.  All  the  votes  of  the  people 
would  do  us  no  good  if  our  party  ceased  to  be  a 
revolutionary  party,  or  came  to  be  only  incidentally 
so,  while  yielding  more  and  more  to  the  pressure 
to  modify  the  principles  and  program  of  the  party 
for  the  sake  of  swelling  the  vote  and  hastening  the 
day  of  its  expected  triumph. 

It  is  precisely  this  policy  and  the  alluring  prom- 
ise it  holds  out  to  new  members  with  more  zeal 
than  knowledge  of  working  class  economics,  that 
constitutes  the  danger  we  should  guard  against 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  91 

in  preparing  for  the  next  campaign.  The  truth  is 
that  we  hare  not  a  few  members  who  regard  vote- 
getting  as  of  supreme  importance,  no  matter  by 
what  method  the  votes  may  be  secured,  and  this 
leads  them  to  hold  out  inducements  and  make  rep- 
resentations which  are  not  at  all  compatible  with 
the  stern  and  uncompromising  principles  of  a  revo- 
v  lutionary  party.  They  seek  to  make  the  Socialist 
propaganda  so  attractive — eliminating  whatever 
may  give  offense  to  bourgeois  sensibilities — that  it 
serves  as  a  bait  for  votes  rather  than  as  a  means  of 
education,  and  votes  thus  secured  do  not  properly 
belong  to  us  and  do  injustice  to  our  party  as  well 
as  to  those  who  cast  them. 

These  votes  do  not  express  socialism  and  in  the 
next  ensuing  election  are  quite  as  apt  to  be  turned 
against  us,  and  it  is  better  that  they  be  not  cast 
for  the  Socialist  party,  registering  a  degree  of 
progress  the  party  is  not  entitled  to  and  indicating 
a  political  position  the  party  is  unable  to  sustain. 

Socialism  is  a  matter  of  growth,  of  evolution, 
which  can  be  advanced  by  wise  methods,  but  never 
by  obtaining  for  it  a  fictitious  vote.  We  should 
seek  only  to  register  the  actual  vote  of  socialism,  no 
more  and  no  less.  In  our  propaganda  we  should 
state  our  principles  clearly,  speak  the  truth  fear- 
lessly, seeking  neither  to  flatter  nor  to  offend,  but 
only  to  convince  those  who  should  be  with  us  and 
win  them  to  our  cause  through  an  intelligent  un- 
derstanding of  its  mission. 

There  is  also  a  disposition  on  the  part  of  some 
to  join  hands  with  reactionary  trade-unionists  in 


92  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

local  emergencies  and  in  certain  temporary  situa- 
tions to  effect  some  specific  purpose,  which  may  or 
may  not  be  in  harmony  with  our  revolutionary 
program.  No  possible  good  can  come  from  any 
kind  of  a  political  alliance,  express  or  implied, 
with  trade-unions  or  the  leaders  of  trade  unions 
who  are  opposed  to  socialism  and  only  turn  to  it 
for  use  in  some  extremity,  the  fruit  of  their  own 
reactionary  policy. 

Of  course  we  want  the  support  of  trade-unionists, 
but  only  of  those  who  believe  in  socialism  and  are 
ready  to  vote  and  work  with  us  for  the  overthrow 
of  capitalism. 

The  American  Federation  of  Labor,  as  an  organi- 
zation, with  its  Civic  federation  to  determine  its 
attitude  and  control  its  course,  is  deadly  hostile  to 
the  Socialist  party  and  to  any  and  every  revolu- 
tionary movement  of  the  working  class.  To  kow- 
tow to  this  organization  and  to  join  hands  with  its 
leaders  to  secure  political  favors  can  only  result 
in  compromising  our  principles  and  bringing  dis- 
aster to  the  party. 

Not  for  all  the  vote  of  the  American  Federation 
of  Labor  and  its  labor-dividing  and  corruption 
breeding  craft-unions  should  we  compromise  one 
jot  of  our  revolutionary  principles;  and  if  we  do 
we  shall  be  visited  with  the  contempt  we  deserve 
by  all  real  Socialists,  who  will  scorn  to  remain  in 
a  party  professing  to  be  a  revolutionary  party  of 
the  working  class  while  employing  the  crooked  and 
disreputable  methods  of  ward-heeling  politicians  to 
attain  their  ends. 


LABOR  AND   FREEDOM.  93 

Of  far  greater  importance  than  increasing  the 
vote  of  the  Socialist  party  is  the  economic  organiza- 
tion of  the  working  class.  To  the  extent,  and  only 
to  the  extent,  that  the  workers  are  organized  and 
disciplined  in  their  respective  industries  can  the 
Socialist  movement  advance  and  the  Socialist  party 
hold  what  is  registered  by  the  ballot.  The  election 
of  legislative  and  administrative  officers,  here  and 
there,  where  the  party  is  still  in  a  crude  state  and 
the  members  economically  and  politically  unfit  to 
assume  the  responsibilities  thrust  upon  them  as  the 
result  of  popular  discontent,  will  inevitably  bring 
trouble  and  set  the  party  back,  instead  of  advanc- 
ing it,  and  while  this  is  to  be  expected  and  is  to  an 
extent  unavoidable,  we  should  court  no  more  of  that 
kind  of  experience  than  is  necessary  to  avoid  a 
repetition  of  it.  The  Socialist  party  has  already 
achieved  some  victories  of  this  kind  which  proved 
to  be  defeats,  crushing  and  humiliating,  and  from 
which  the  party  has  not  even  now,  after  many 
years,  entirely  recovered. 

We  have  just  so  much  socialism  that  is  stable  and 
dependable,  because  securely  grounded  in  econom- 
ics, in  discipline  and  all  else  that  expresses  class- 
conscious  solidarity,  and  this  must  be  augmented 
steadily  through  economic  and  political  organiza- 
tion, but  no  amount  of  mere  votes  can  accomplish 
this  in  even  the  slightest  degree. 

A  vote  for  socialism  is  not  socialism  any  more 
than  a  menu  is  a  meal. 

Socialism  must  be  organized,  drilled,  equipped, 
and  the  place  to  begin  is  in  the  industries  where 


94  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

the  workers  are  employed.  Their  economic  power 
has  got  to  be  developed  through  efficient  organiza- 
tion, or  their  political  power,  even  if  it  could  be  de- 
veloped, would  but  react  upon  them,  thwart  their 
plans,  blast  their  hopes,  and  all  but  destroy  them. 

Such  organization  to  be  effective  must  be  ex- 
pressed in  terms  of  industrial  unionism.  Each  in- 
dustry must  be  organized  in  its  entirety,  embrac- 
ing all  the  workers,  and  all  working  together  in 
the  interests  of  all,  in  the  true  spirit  of  solidarity, 
thus  laying  the  foundation  and  developing  the 
superstructure  of  the  new  system  within  the  old, 
from  which  it  is  evolving,  and  systematically  fitting 
the  workers,  step  by  step,  to  assume  entire  control 
of  the  productive  forces  when  the  hour  strikes  for 
the  impending  organic  change. 

Without  such  economic  organization  and  the 
economic  power  with  which  it  is  clothed,  and  with- 
out the  industrial  co-operative  training,  discipline 
and  efficiency  which  are  its  corollaries,  the  fruit 
of  any  political  victories  the  workers  may  achieve 
will  turn  to  ashes  on  their  lips. 

Now  that  the  capitalist  system  is  so  palpably 
breaking  down,  and  in  consequence  its  political 
parties  breaking  up,  the  disintegrating  elements 
with  vague  reform  ideas  and  radical  bourgeois  ten- 
dencies will  head  in  increasing  numbers  toward 
the  Socialist  party,  especially  since  the  greatly  en- 
larged vote  of  this  year  has  been  announced  and  the 
party  is  looming  up  as  a  possible  dispenser  of  the 
spoils  of  office.  There  is  danger,  I  believe,  that 
the  party  may  be  swamped  by  such  an  exodus  and 


LABOR   AND   FREEDOM.  95 

the  best  possible  means  —  and,  in  fact,  the  only  ef- 
fectual means  —  of  securing  the  party  against  such 
a  fatality  is  the  economic  power  of  the  industrially- 
organized  workers. 

The  votes  will  come  rapidly  enough  from  now 
on  without  seeking  them  and  we  should  make  it 
clear  that  the  Socialist  party  wants  the  votes  only 
of  those  who  want  socialism,  and  that,  above  all,  as 
a  revolutionary  party  of  the  working  class,  it  dis- 
countenances vote-seeking  for  the  sake  of  votes  and 
holds  in  contempt  office-seeking  for  the  sake  of 
office.  These  belong  entirely  to  capitalist  parties 
with  their  bosses  and  their  boodle  and  have  no  place 
in  a  party  whose  shibboleth  is  emancipation. 

With  the  workers  efficiently  organized  indus- 
trially, bound  together  by  the  common  tie  of  their 
enlightened  self-interest,  they  will  just  as  naturally 
and  inevitably  express  their  economic  solidarity  in 
political  terms  and  cast  a  united  vote  for  the  party 
of  their  class  as  the  forces  of  nature  express  obedi- 
ence to  the  law  of  gravitation. 


PIONEER  WOMEN  IN  AMERICA. 

Progressive   "Woman,    April,    1912. 

In  looking  over  some  old  letters  a  day  or  two  ago 
I  found  a  postal  card  which  Susan  B.  Anthony  had 
written  to  me  over  thirty  years  ago,  and,  strangely 
enough,  it  was  held  fast  by  a  letter  that  was  writ- 
ten to  me  about  the  same  time  by  Wendell  Phillips, 


96  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

as  if  these  two  epistles  had  been  attracted  to  each 
other  and  held  together  in  the  bonds  of  mutualism 
as  were  the  great  souls  who  had  written  them  in 
their  heroic  struggle  for  human  enfranchisement. 

The  faded  and  time-worn  old  card  carried  me 
back  to  the  day  I  met  Miss  Anthony  at  the  depot  on 
her  arrival  at  Terre  Haute,  where  she  was  to  speak 
in  public  for  her  sex.  At  that  time  Mrs.  Ida 
Husted  Harper,  who  afterward  became  Miss  An- 
thony's confidential  friend  and  authorized  biogra- 
pher, and  I,  and  two  or  three  others,  were  about  the 
only  people  in  Terre  Haute  who  believed  that 
woman  was  a  human  being  and  entitled  to  the 
rights  of  citizenship.  We  had  arranged  these  meet- 
ings for  Miss  Anthony  and  her  three  active  coad- 
jutors in  woman's  cause  at  that  time,  and  they  ar- 
rived according  to  the  schedule. 

I  shall  never  forget  how  Miss  Anthony  impressed 
me.  She  had  all  the  charm  of  a  real  woman  and  all 
the  strength  of  a  perfect  man.  Style,  personal 
adornment,  she  did  not  know;  vanity  found  no 
lodgment  in  her  great  soul.  She  was  born  with  a 
heroic  purpose,  and  she  set  out  in  fulfillment  of 
that  purpose  with  a  spirit  of  dauntless  valor  and 
determination  which  knew  "no  variableness  or 
shadow  of  turning"  to  the  day  that  ended  her  con 
secrated  life  and  she  passed  from  the  scenes  of 
men. 

The  trials,  privations,  insults  borne  by  this  grand 
old  pioneer  will  never  be  known  by  tho?e  who  are 
in  the  ranks  today.  An  event  characteristic  of  the 
struggle  in  which  she  engaged  almost  single-handed 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  '.n 

for  so  many  years  was  her  arrest  and  trial  for  vot- 
ing in  the  presidential  election  of  1872.  A  fine  of 
one  hundred  dollars  and  costs  was  imposed  upon 
her,  which  she  vowed  she  would  not  pay,  even  if 
she  were  sent  to  jail.  When  Miss  Anthony  said  a 
thing  she  meant  it.  That  fine  was  never  paid. 

It  was,  after  all,  a  stroke  of  good  fortune  that 
Miss  Anthony  was  the  victim  of  this  barbarous 
indignity.  It  inspired  one  of  the  greatest  speeches 
of  her  life.  In  opening  this  dramatic  plea  and  pro- 
test she  said : 

"Friends  and  Fellow-Citizens :  I  stand  before 
you  tonight  under  indictment  for  the  alleged 
crime  of  having  voted  at  the  last  presidential  elec 
tion,  without  having  a  lawful  right  to  vote.  It 
shall  be  my  work  this  evening  to  prove  to  you  that 
in  thus  voting  I  not  only  committed  no  crime,,  but. 
instead,  simply  exercised  my  citizen's  rights,  guar- 
anteed to  me  and  all  United  States  citizens  by  the 
National  Constitution,  beyond  the  power  of  any 
State  to  deny." 

She  then  quoted  from  the  preamble  of  the  Fed- 
eral Constitution :  "We,  the  people  of  the  United 
States,"  etc.,  and  proceeded : 

"It  was  we,  the  people;  not  we,  the  white  male 
citizens ;  nor  yet  we  the  male  citizens ;  but,  we  the 
whole  people,  who  formed  the  union.  And  we 
formed  it,  not  to  give  the  blessings  of  liberty,  but 
to  secure  them;  not  to  the  half  of  ourselves  and 
the  half  of  our  posterity,  but  to  the  whole  people — 
women  as  well  as  men.  And  it  is  a  downright  mock- 
ery to  talk  to  women  of  their  enjoyment  of  the 


98  LABOR   AND    FREEDOM. 

blessings  of  liberty  while  they  are  denied  the  use  of 
the  only  means  of  securing  them  provided  by  this 
democratic-republican  government — the  ballot.  The 
early  journals  of  Congress  show  that  when  the  com- 
mittee reported  to  that  body  the  original  articles  of 
confederation,  the  very  first  article  which  became 
the  subject  of  discussion  was  that  respecting  equal- 
ity of  suffrage.  Article  4  said:  'The  better  to  se- 
cure and  perpetuate  mutual  friendship  and  inter- 
course between  the  people  of  the  different  States 
of  the  Union,  the  free  inhabitants  of  each  of  the 
States  (paupers,  vagabonds  and  fugitives  from  jus- 
tice excepted)  shall  be  entitled  to  all  the  privileges 
and  immunities  of  the  free  citizen  of  the  several 
States/ 

"Thus,  at  the  very  beginning  did  the  fathers  see 
the  necessity  of  the  universal  application  of  the 
great  principle  of  equal  rights  to  all,  in  order  to 
produce  the  desired  results — a  harmonious  union 
and  a  homogeneous  people." 

Miss  Anthony  then  quoted  the  New  York  State 
Constitution :  "No  member  of  this  State  shall  be 
disfranchised  or  deprived  of  the  rights  or  privileges 
secured  to  any  citizen  thereof,  unless  by  the  law  of 
the  land  or  the  judgment  of  its  peers." 

She  then  proceeded  with  her  argument,  which 
has  never  been  and  never  will  be  answered.  It  is 
to  be  regretted  that  space  forbids  more  ample  quota- 
tion in  this  article.  Here  is  a  glowing  paragraph 
from  her  impassioned  plea  which  is  characteristic 
of  the  entire  address : 

"To  them  (women)  this  government  has  no  just 


LABOR   AND   FREEDOM.  99 

powers  derived  from  the  consent  of  the  governed. 
To  them  this  government  is  not  a  democracy.  It 
is  not  a  republic.  It  is  an  odious  aristocracy;  a 
hateful  oligarchy  of  sex;  the  most  hateful  aristo- 
cracy ever  established  on  the  face  of  the  globe;  an 
oligarchy  of  wealth,,  where  the  rich  govern  the  poor. 
An  oligarchy  of  learning,  where  the  educated  gov- 
ern the  ignorant,  or  even  an  oligarchy  of  race, 
jrhere  the  Saxon  rules  the  African,  might  be  en- 
dured; but  this  oligarchy  of  sex,  which  makes 
father,  brothers,  husband,  sons  the  oligarch  over 
the  mother  and  sisters,  the  wife  and  daughters  of 
every  household ;  which  ordains  all  men  sovereigns, 
all  women  subjects;  carries  dissension,  discord  and 
rebellion  into  every  home  of  the  nation." 

There  has  never  been  a  more  logical  unanswer- 
able argument  for  the  political  enfranchisement  of 
women  than  was  here  made  by  Miss  Anthony.  And 
yet  only  a  very  few  of  the  people  were  fair  enough 
to  listen,  intelligent  enough  to  understand,  or  can- 
did enough  to  give  approval,  if  they  did. 

Susan  B.  Anthony's  whole  career  was  one  tem- 
pestuous struggle  for  the  rights  of  her  sex.  She 
never  wavered  and  she  never  wearied  in  the  conflict. 
She  had  the  moral  courage  of  a  martyr,  and  such 
she  was  as  certainly  as  any  that  ever  perished  at 
the  stake. 

On  my  visit  to  Johnstown,  1ST.  Y.,  recently,  the 
comrades  pointed  out  the  spot  where  Elizabeth 
Cady  Stanton,  another  pioneer  heroine  of  the  move- 
ment, was  born.  Mrs.  Stanton  has  long  since  been 
gathered  to  her  fathers,  but  her  work  remains  an 


100     *  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

imperishable  monument  in  memory  of  her  achieve- 
ments. 

It  was  at  the  first  Woman's  Rights  convention 
ever  held  in  the  United  States,  July  19,  1848,  that 
Mrs.  Stanton  delivered  an  oration  that  will  forever 
have  a  place  in  the  literature  of  woman's  struggle 
for  freedom.  The  doctrine  she  advocated  was  at 
that  time  little  less  than  treason,  but  she  knew  it 
was  true,  and  she  boldly  took  her  stand  and  main- 
tained it  to  the  end.  In  her  speech  at  this  first  con- 
vention she  said : 

"Now  is  the  time  for  the  women  of  this  country, 
if  they  would  save  our  free  institutions,  to  defend 
the  right,  to  buckle  on  the  armor  that  can  best  re- 
sist the  keenest  weapons  of  the  enemy — contempt 
and  ridicule.  The  same  religious  enthusiasm  that 
nerved  Joan  of  Arc  to  her  work  nerves  us  to  ours. 
In  every  generation  God  calls  some  men  and  women 
for  the  utterance  of  the  truth,  a  heroic  action,  and 
our  work  today  is  the  fulfilling  of  what  has  long 
since  been  foretold  by  the  prophet.  *  *  *  We  do 
not  expect  our  path  will  be  strewn  with  the  flowers 
of  popular  applause,  but  over  the  thorns  of  bigotry 
and  prejudice  will  be  our  way,  and  on  our  banner 
will  beat  dark  storm-clouds  of  opposition  from 
those  who  have  entrenched  themselves  behind  the 
stormy  bulwarks  of  custom  and  authority,  and  who 
have  fortified  their  position  by  every  means,  holy 
and  unholy.  But  we  will  steadfastly  abide  the  re- 
sult. Unmoved  we  will  bear  it  aloft.  Undauntedly 
we  will  unfurl  it  to  the  gale,  for  we  know  that  the 
storm  cannot  rend  from  it  a  shred,  that  the  electric 


LABOR   AND   FREEDOM.  101 

•flash  will  but  more  clearly  show  to  us  the  glorious 
words  inscribed  upon  it :    'Equality  of  Rights/  ': 

There  was  thrilling  power  in  the  burning  elo- 
quence of  Mrs.  Stanton,  but  only  they  who  had  a 
part  in  the  struggle  at  that  time  could  have  any 
conception  of  what  bitter  hatred,  blind  prejudice 
and  malign  persecution  there  were  to  overcome. 

In  February,  1854,  Mrs.  Stanton  made  a  notable 
plea  for  the  political  rights  of  women  to  the  legisla 
ture  of  New  York.  In  mentally  invoicing  an  aver- 
age legislature  today  one  gets  some  idea  of  the  self- 
imposed  task  of  this  brave  old  pioneer,  and  the 
indomitable  spirit  required  to  undertake  it,  of 
arousing  a  body  of  sodden  bourgeois  legislators, 
ward  politicians,  to  recognize  the  right  of  women 
to  breathe  the  air  of  civilized  citizenship  and  be- 
long to  themselves.  In  this  thoroughly  militant 
and  inspiring  appeal  she  said : 

"The  tyrant,  Custom,  has  been  summoned  before 
the  bar  of  Common  Sense.  His  majesty  no  longer 
awes  the  multitude;  his  scepter  is  broken;  his 
crown  is  trampled  in  the  dust;  the  sentence  of 
death  is  pronounced  upon  him.  All  nations,  ranks 
and  classes  have,  in  turn,  questioned  and  repudiated 
his  authority ;  and  now,  that  the  monster  is  chained 
and  caged,  timid  woman,  on  tiptoe,  comes  to  look 
him  in  the  face,  and  to  demand  of  her  brave  sires 
and  sons,  who  have  struck  stout  blows  for  liberty, 
if,  in  this  change  of  dynasty,  she,  too,  shall  find 
relief.  *  *  * 

"We  demand  the  full  recognition  of  all  our  rights 
as  citizens  of  the  Empire  State.  We  are  persons ; 


102  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

natives,  free-born  citizens;  property  holders,  tax- 
payers, yet  we  are  denied  the  exercise  of  our  right 
to  the  elective  franchise.  We  support  ourselves, 
and,  in  part,  your  schools,  colleges,  churches,  your 
poor-houses,  jails,  prisons,  the  army,  the  navy,  the 
whole  machinery  of  government,  and  yet  we  have 
no  voice  in  your  councils.  We  have  every  qualifi- 
cation required  by  the  constitution  necessary  to  the 
legal  voter  but  the  one  of  sex.  We  are  moral,  vir- 
tuous and  intelligent,  and  in  all  respects  quite  equal 
to  the  proud  white  man  himself,  and  yet  by  your 
laws  we  are  classed  with  idiots,  lunatics  and  ne- 
groes." 

These  two  sturdy  pioneers  in  woman's  struggle 
present  a  magnificent  picture  in  the  perspective. 
They  did  not  know  the  meaning  of  discouragement. 
They  were  strangers  to  weakness  and  fear. 

Both  were  of  heroic  mould.  Both  were  born  and 
endowed  for  great  service  and  both  made  their 
names  synonymous  with  the  struggle  of  their  sex 
to  shake  off  the  fetters  of  the  centuries. 

Mrs.  Stanton  was  born  in  1815,  ante-dating  Miss 
Anthony  by  five  years.  They  were  inseparable 
friends,  and  they  who  saw  them  together  say  that 
their  love  and  fealty  toward  each  other  was  so  beau- 
tiful and  touching  that  it  was  an  inspiration  to  all 
their  co-workers  and  shamed  to  silence  all  their 
bickerings  and  petty  jealousies. 

They  both  lived  to  be  over  eighty  years.  After 
full  half  a  century  of  unrelaxing  fidelity  to  their 
principles  and  unceasing  battle  for  their  cause  they 
saw  but  the  beginning  of  the  glorious  fruition  of 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  103 

their  consecrated  service.  Such  has  been  the  fate 
of  all  who,  like  these  great  souls,  loved  principle 
better  than  popularity  and  humanity  more  than 
themselves. 

The  women  who  are  in  the  ranks  today  may  well 
rejoice  that  these  grand  women  and  others  who 
shared  in  their  bitter  persecution  blazed  the  way 
through  the  dense  wilderness  of  ignorance,  prejud- 
ice and  hatred  for  what  is  now  a  world  movement, 
with  millions  proudly  bearing  its  banner,  inscribed 
with  the  conquering  shibboleth:  Equal  Freedom 
and  Equal  Opportunities  for  All  Mankind. 


SPEECHES 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  107 


UNITY    AND    VICTORY. 

Speech    Before    State    Convention    of    American    Federation    of 
Labor,    Pittsburg,    Kansas,    August    12,    1908. 


Introduction  by  Chairman  Cable. 

Gentlemen  of  the  Convention :  I  assure  you  it  is 
a  great  privilege  on  my  part  to  present  to  you  at 
this  time  a  gentleman  who  needs  no  introduction  at 
my  hands;  a  gentleman  who  is  known  to  you  and 
who  is  known  to  the  workingmen  throughout  the 
length  and  breadth  of  this  country  as  a  true  and 
tried  trade  unionist  and  the  candidate  of  the  So- 
cialist party  for  President  of  the  United  States.  I, 
therefore,  take  great  pleasure  in  presenting  to  you 
Brother  Eugene  V.  Debs. 

Mr.  Chairman,  Delegates  and  Fellow  Workers : 
It  is  with  pleasure,  I  assure  you,  that  I  embrace 
this  opportunity  to  exchange  greetings  with  you  in 
the  councils  of  labor.  I  have  prepared  no  formal 
address,  nor  is  any  necessary  at  this  time.  You 
have  met  here  as  the  representatives  of  organized 
labor  and  if  I  can  do  anything  to  assist  you  in  the 
work  you  have  been  delegated  to  do  I  shall  render 
that  assistance  with  great  pleasure. 

To  serve  the  working  class  is  to  me  always  a  duty 
of  love.  Thirty-three  years  ago  I  first  became  a 
member  of  a  trade  union.  I  can  remember  quite 
well  under  what  difficulties  meetings  were  held  and 
with  what  contempt  organized  labor  was  treated 


108  LABOR   AND   FEEEDOM. 

at  that  time.  There  has  been  a  decided  change. 
The  small  and  insignificant  trade  union  has  ex- 
panded to  the  proportions  of  a  great  national  or- 
ganization. The  few  hundreds  now  number  mil- 
lions and  organized  labor  has  become  a  recognized 
factor  in  the  economics  and  politics  of  the  nation. 

There  has  been  a  great  evolution  during  that 
time  and  while  the  power  of  the  organized  work- 
ers has  increased  there  has  been  an  industrial  de- 
velopment which  makes  that  power  more  necessary 
than  ever  before  in  all  the  history  of  the  working 
class  movement. 

This  is  an  age  of  organization.  The  small  em- 
ployer of  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago  has  practically 
disappeared.  The  workingman  of  today  is  con- 
fronted by  the  great  corporation  which  has  its  iron- 
clad rules  and  regulations,  and  if  they  don't  suit 
he  can  quit. 

In  the  presence  of  this  great  power,  workingmen 
are  compelled  to  organize  or  be  ground  to  atoms. 
They  have  organized.  They  have  the  numbers. 
They  have  had  some  bitter  experience.  They  have 
suffered  beyond  the  power  of  language  to  describe, 
but  they  have  not  yet  developed  their  latent  power 
to  a  degree  that  they  can  cope  successfully  with  the 
great  power  that  exploits  and  oppresses  them. 
Upon  this  question  of  organization,  my  brothers, 
you  and  I  may  differ  widely,  but  as  we  are  reason- 
able men,  we  can  discuss  these  differences  candidly 
until  we  find  common  ground  upon  which  we  can 
stand  side  by  side  in  the  true  spirit  of  solidarity — 


LABOR   AND   FREEDOM.  109 

and  work  together  for  the  emancipation  of  OUT 
class. 

Until  quite  recently  the  average  trade  unionist 
was  opposed  to  having  politics  even  mentioned  in 
the  meeting  of  his  union.  The  reason  for  this  is 
self-evident.  Workingmen  have  not  until  now 
keenly  felt  the  necessity  for  independent  working 
class  political  action.  They  have  been  divided  be- 
tween the  two  capitalist  parties  and  the  very  sug- 
gestion that  the  union  was  to  be  used  in  the  interest 
of  the  one  or  the  other  was  in  itself  sufficient  to 
sow  the  seed  of  disruption.  So  it  isn't  strange  that 
the  average  trade  unionist  guarded  carefully 
against  the  introduction  of  political  questions  in 
his  union.  But  within  the  past  two  or  three  years 
there  have  been  such  changes  that  workingmen  have 
been  compelled  to  take  notice  of  the  fact  that  the 
labor  question  is  essentially  a  political  question, 
and  that  if  they  would  protect  themselves  against 
the  greed  and  rapacity  of  the  capitalist  class  they 
must  develop  their  political  power  as  well  as  their 
economic  power,  and  use  both  in  their  own  interest. 
Workingmen  have  developed  sufficient  intelligence 
to  understand  the  necessity  for  unity  upon  the 
economic  field.  All  now  recognize  the  need  for 
thorough  organization.  But  organization  of  num- 
bers of  itself  is  not  sufficient.  You  might  have  all 
the  workers  of  the  comrhy  embraced  in  some  vast 
organization  and  yet  they  would  be  very  weak  if 
they  were  not  organized  upon  correct  principles; 
if  they  did  not  understand,  and  understand  clearly, 


110  LABOR  AND  FREEDOM. 

what  they  were  organized  for,  and  what  their  or- 
ganization expected  to  accomplish. 

I  am  of  those  who  believe  that  an  organization 
of  workingmen,  to  be  efficient,  to  meet  the  demands 
of  this  hour,  must  be  organized  upon  a  revolution- 
ary basis ;  must  have  for  its  definite  object  not  only 
the  betterment  of  the  condition  of  workingmen  in 
the  wage  system,  but  the  absolute  overthrow  of 
wage  slavery  that  the  workingman  may  be  emanci- 
pated and  stand  forth  clothed  with  the  dignity  and 
all  other  attributes  of  true  manhood. 

Now  let  me  briefly  discuss  the  existing  condition. 
We  have  been  organizing  all  these  years,  and  there 
are  now  approximately  three  millions  of  American 
workingmen  who  wear  union  badges,  who  keep  step 
to  union  progress.  At  this  very  time,  and  in  spite 
of  all  that  organized  labor  can  do  to  the  contrary, 
there  is  a  condition  that  prevails  all  over  this  coun- 
try that  is  well  calculated  to  challenge  the  serious 
consideration  of  every  workingman.  To  begin 
with,  according  to  the  reports  furnished  us,  twenty 
per  cent  of  the  workingmen  of  this  country  are  now 
out  of  employment.  I  have  here  a  copy  of  the  New 
York  World  containing  a  report  of  the  labor  com- 
missioner of  the  State  of  New  York  who  shows  that 
during  the  quarter  ending  June  30  there  were  in 
that  state  an  army  of  union  men  out  of  employment 
approximating  thirty-five  per  cent  of  the  entire 
number;  that  is  to  say,  in  the  State  of  New  York 
today,  out  of  every  one  hundred  union  men  (these 
reports  are  received  from  the  unions  themselves, 
verified  by  their  own  officers,  so  there  can  be  no 


LABOIi   AND   FREEDOM.  Ill 

question  in  regard  to  them),  out  of  every  100  union 
men  in  New  York,  35  are  out  of  employment.  The 
percentage  may  not  he  so  large  in  these  western 
states  where  the  industrial  development  has  not 
reached  the  same  point,  but  go  where  you  may,  east 
or  west,  north  or  south,  you  will  find  men,  union 
men,  who  are  begging  for  the  opportunity  to  work 
for  just  enough  to  keep  their  suffering  souls  within 
their  famished  bodies.  A  system  in  which  such  a 
condition  as  this  is  possible  has  fulfilled  its  mis- 
sion, stands  condemned,  and  ought  to  be  abolished. 

According  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
man  has  the  inalienable  right  to  life.  If  that  be 
true  it  follows  that  he  has  also  the  inalienable  right 
to  work. 

If  you  have  ,no  right  to  work  you  have  no  right 
to  life  because  you  can  only  live  by  work.  And  if 
you  live  in  a  system  that  deprives  you  of  the  right 
to  work,  that  system  denies  you  the  right  to  live. 
Now  man  has  a  right  to  life  because  he  is  here. 
That  is  sufficient  proof,  and  if  he  has  the  right  to 
life,  it  follows  that  he  has  the  right  to  all  the 
means  that  sustain  life.  But  how  is  it  in  this  out- 
grown capitalist  system  ?  A  workingman  can  only 
work  on  condition  that  he  finds  somebody  who  will 
give  him  permission  to  work  for  just  enough  of 
what  his  labor  produces  to  keep  him  in  working 
order. 

No  matter  whether  you  have  studied  this  econ- 
omic question  or  not,  you  cannot  have  failed  to 
observe  that  during  the  past  half  century  society 
has  been  sharply  divided  into  classes — into  a  cap- 


112  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

italist  class  upon  the  one  hand,  into  a  working  class 
upon  the  other  hand.  I  shall  not  take  the  time 
to  trace  this  evolution.  I  shall  «imply  call  your 
attention  to  the  fact  that  half  a  century  ago  all  a 
man  needed  was  a  trade  and  having  this  he  could 
supply  himself  with  the  simple  tools  then  used, 
produce  what  he  needed  and  enjoy  the  fruit  of  his 
labor.  But  this  has  been  completely  changed.  The 
simple  tool  has  disappeared  and  the  great  machine 
has  taken  its  place.  The  little  shop  is  gone  and  the 
great  factory  has  come  in  its  stead.  The  worker 
can  no  longer  work  by  and  for  himself.  He  has 
been  recruited  into  regiments,  battalions  and  arm- 
ies and  work  has  been  subdivided  and  specialized; 
and  now  hundreds  and  thousands  and  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  workingmen  work  together  co-operatively 
and  produce  in  great  abundance,  not  for  themselves, 
however,  for  they  no  longer  own  the  tools  they 
work  with.  What  they  produce  belongs  to  the 
capitalist  class  who  own  the  tools  with  which  they 
work.  A  man  fifty  years  ago  who  made  a  shoe 
owned  it.  Today  it  is  possible  for  that  same 
worker,  if  still  alive,  to  make  a  hundred  times  as 
many  shoes,  but  he  doesn't  own  them  now.  He 
works  today  with  modern  machinery  which  is  the 
property  of  some  capitalist  who  lives  perhaps  a 
thousand  miles  from  where  the  factory  is  located 
and  who  owns  all  the  product  because  he  owns  the 
machinery. 

T  have  stated  that  society  ha?  been  divided  into 
two  warring  classes.  The  capitalist  owns  the  tool 
in  modern  industry,  but  he  has  nothing  to  do  with 


LABOR   AND   FREEDOM.  113 

its  operation.  By  virtue  of  such  ownership  he  has 
the  economic  power  to  appropriate  to  himself  the 
wealth  produced  by  the  use  of  that  tool.  This  ac- 
counts for  the  fact  that  the  capitalist  becomes  rich. 
But  how  about  the  working  class?  In  the  first 
place  they  have  to  compete  with  each  other  for  the 
privilege  of  operating  the  capitalist's  tool  of  pro- 
duction. The  bigger  the  tool  and  the  more  gen- 
erally it  is  applied,  the  more  it  produces,  the 
sharper  competition  grows  between  the  workers  for 
the  privilege  of  using  it  and  the  more  are  thrown 
out  of  employment.  Every  few  years,,  no  matter 
what  party  is  in  power,  no  matter  what  our  domes- 
tic policy  is,  how  high  the  tariff  or  what  the  money 
standard,  every  few  years  the  cry  goes  up  about 
"over-production"  and  the  working  class  is  dis- 
charged by  the  thousands  and  thousands,  and  are 
idle,  just  as  the  miners  have  been  in  this  field  for 
many  weary  months. 

No  work,  no  food,  and  after  a  while,  no  credit, 
and  all  this  in  the  shadow  of  the  abundance  these 
very  workers  have  created. 

Don't  you  agree  with  me,  my  brothers,  that  this 
condition  is  an  intolerable  and  indefensible  one, 
and  that  whatever  may  be  said  of  the  past,  this 
system  no  longer  answers  the  demands  of  this  time  ? 
Why  should  any  workingman  need  to  beg  for  work  ? 
Why  forced  to  surrender  to  anybody  any  part  of 
what  his  labor  produces? 

Now,  I  ask  this  question,  and  it  applies  to  the 
whole  field  of  industry :  If  a  hundred  men  work  in 
a  mine  and  produce  a  hundred  tons  of  coal,  how 


114  LABOR   AND    FREEDOM. 

much  of  that  coal  are  they  entitled  to  ?  Are  they 
not  entitled  to  all  of  it?  And  if  not,  who  is  en- 
titled to  any  part  of  it?  If  the  man  who  produces 
wealth  is  not  entitled  to  it,  who  is?  You  say  the 
capitalist  is  necessary  and  I  deny  it.  The  capitalist 
has  become  a  profit-taking  parasite.  Industry  is 
now  concentrated  and  operated  on  a  very  large 
scale;  it  is  co-operative  and  therefore  self -operative. 
The  capitalists  hire  superintendents,  managers  and 
workingmen  to  operate  their  plants  and  produce 
wealth.  The  capitalists  are  absolutely  unnecessary ; 
they  have  no  part  in  the  process  of  production — 
not  the  slightest. 

Now  I  insist  that  it  is  the  workingman's  duty 
to  so  organize  economically  and  politically  as  to 
put  an  end  to  this  system ;  as  to  take  possession  in 
his  collective  capacity  of  the  machinery  of  produc- 
tion and  operate  it,  not  to  create  millionaires  and 
multi-millionaires,  but  to  produce  wealth  in  plenty 
for  all.  That  is  why  the  labor  question  is  also  a 
political  question.  It  makes  no  difference  what 
you  do  on  the  economic  field  to  better  your  condi- 
tion, so  long  as  the  tools  of  production  are  pri- 
vately owned,  so  long  as  they  are  operated  for  the 
private  profit  of  the  capitalist,  the  working  clas^ 
will  be  exploited,  they  will  be  in  enforced  idleness, 
thousands  of  them  will  be  reduced  to  want,  some 
of  them  to  vagabonds  and  criminals,  and  this  con- 
dition will  prevail  in  spite  of  anything  that  or- 
ganized labor  can  do  to  the  contrary. 

The  most  important  thing  for  the  workingman 
to  recognize  is  the  class  struggle.  Every  capitalist, 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  115 

every  capitalist  newspaper,  every  capitalist  attor- 
ney and  retainer  will  insist  that  we  have  no  classes 
in  this  country  and-  that  there  is  no  class  struggle. 
President  Iioosevelt  himself  has  declared  that  class- 
consciousness  is  a  foul  and  evil  thing.  Now,  what 
is  class-consciousness?  It  is  simply  a  recognition 
of  the  fact  on  the  part  of  the  workingman  that  his 
interest  is  identical  with  the  interest  of  every  other 
workingman.  Class-consciousness  points  out  the 
necessity  for  working-class  action,  economic  and 
political. 

What  is  it  that  keeps  the  working  class  in  sub- 
jection? What  is  it  that  is  responsible  for  their 
exploitation  and  for  all  of  the  ills  they  suffer? 
Just  one  thing;  it  can  be  stated  in  a  single  word. 
It  is  Ignorance.  The  working  class  have  not  yet 
learned  how  to  unite  and  act  together.  There  are 
relatively  but  few  capitalists  in  this  country ;  there 
are  perhaps  twenty  millions  of  wage  workers,  but 
the  capitalists  and  their  retainers  have  contrived 
during  all  these  years  to  keep  the  working  class 
divided,  and  as  long  as  the  working  class  is  divided 
it  will  be  helpless.  It  is  only  when  the  working 
class  learn — and  they  are  learning  daily  and  by 
very  bitter  experience — to  unite  and  to  act  together, 
especially  on  election  day,  that  there  is  any  hope 
for  emancipation. 

The  workingmen  you  represent,  my  brothers,  are 
in  an  overwhelming  majority  in  every  township, 
county  and  state  of  this  nation.  You  declare  you 
are  in  favor  of  united  action,  but  still  you  don't 
unite.  You  unite  under  certain  conditions  within 


116  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

your  union,  you  get  together  upon  the  economic 
iield  to  a  limited  extent,  but  you  have  yet  to  l«arn 
that  before  you  can  really  accomplish  anything  you 
have  got  to  unite  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name.  The 
time  is  coming  when  workingmen  will  be  forced 
into  one  general  organization.  The  time  is  coming 
when  they  will  be  compelled  to  organize  on  the  basis 
of  industrial  unionism. 

At  this  very  hour  there  is  a  strike  on  the  Canadian 
Pacific.  Eight  thousand  workingmen  who  are  more 
or  less  organized  and  who  have  been  wronged  in 
many  ways,  have  finally  gone  out  on  strike.  There 
are  other  thousands  remaining  at  their  posts  and 
non-union  men  flowing  in  there  will  be  hauled  to 
their  destination  by  union  men,  and  union  men  will 
continue  to  work  until  their  eight  thousand  broth- 
ers have  lost  their  jobs  and  many  of  them  have  be- 
come tramps.  That  is  called  organization,  but  it 
is  not  so  in  fact.  It  is  at  best  organization  of  a 
very  weak  and  defective  character.  Xow,  the  right 
kind  of  organization  on  the  Canadian  Pacific  would 
embrace  all  the  workers.  They  should  all  be  in- 
cluded within  the  same  organization  and  then  have 
one  general  working  agreement  with  the  company 
so  that  if  there  was  a  violation  of  it,  it  would  con- 
cern every  man  in  the  service.  But  how  is  it  at 
present  ?  The  engineers,  conductors,  trainmen  and 
switchmen  are  in  separate  unions  and  after  they 
have  been  signed  up,  the  company  can  treat  the 
rest  just  as  they  please,  for  they  know  that  if  they 
strike  and  the  others  remain  in  their  service,  as 
they  are  bound  to  do  under  their  agreement,  they 


LABOtt   AND   FREEDOM.  117 

can  very  easily  supplant  them  and  remain  in  per- 
fect control  of  the  system.  We  have  had  enough 
of  that  kind  of  experience  and  we  ought  to  profit 
by  it.  We  ought  to  realize  that  there  is  but  one 
form  of  organization  that  answers  completely,  one 
in  which  all  subscribe  to  the  same  rules  and  act  to- 
gether in  all  things,  and  you  will  have  to  organize 
upon  that  basis  or  see  your  unions  become  prac- 
tically worthless. 

Now  let  us  consider  another  line  briefly  for  the 
benefit  of  those  who  have  opposed  political  action. 
We  are  all  aware  of  the  trend  of  the  decisions  re- 
cently rendered  by  the  United  States  supreme 
court.  Three  decisions  have  been  rendered  in  rapid 
succession  which  strike  down  the  rights  of  labor 
and  virtually  strip  organized  labor  of  its  power. 
Under  these  decisions  organized  labor  has  been  out- 
lawed, and  while  upon  this  question  I  want  to  sug- 
gest that  this  body  at  the  proper  time  in  its  de- 
liberations put  the  following  questions  to  the  can- 
didates for  the  United  States  senate  and  house  of 
representatives  in  the  State  of  Kansas  and  request 
them  to  answer : 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  United  States  su- 
preme court  has  rendered  a  number  of  decisions 
placing  the  working  class  at  a  tremendous  disad- 
vantage in  its  struggle  with  the  employing  class  for 
better  conditions,  we  respectfully  submit  to  the 
candidates  for  the  United  States  senate  and  house 
of  representatives  the  following  questions : 

1.  Are  you  in  favor  of  issuing  injunctions 
against  trade  union  members  because  they  refuse 


118  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

to  patronize  a  non-union  employer  and  advise  their 
friends  to  do  likewise? 

2.  Will  you  introduce  and  vote  for  a  measure 
setting  aside  the  decision  of  the  supreme  court  of 
the  District  of  Columbia  in  the  case  of  Buck  Stove 
and  Range  Company  against  officers  of  the  A.  F.  of 
L.,  making  it  a  criminal  act  for  a  labor  union  to 
place  an  employer  on  its  unfair  list  ? 

3.  Are  you  in  favor  of  classifying  trade  unions 
as  "trusts  in  restraint  of  trade/'  as  was  done  by  the 
supreme  court  in  the  case  of  Lowe  vs.  Lawler,  and 
will  you  introduce  a  measure,  should  you  be  elected, 
providing  for  the  exemption  of  trade  unions  from 
the  operation  of  the  anti-trust  law  under  this  court 
decision  ? 

4.  Do  you  endorse  the  supreme  court  decision 
making  it  lawful  for  a  corporation  to  discharge  a 
man  because  of  his  membership  in  a  labor  union? 
If  you  do  not,  will  you  introduce  and  vote  for  a 
bill  setting  aside  this  decision  of  the  supreme  court 
and  making  it  unlawful  for  a  corporation  to  dis- 
charge a  man  because  he  is  a  member  of  a  trade 
union  ? 

Here  are  these  candidates  in  the  State  of  Kansas 
for  the  United  States  senate  and  house  of  represen- 
tatives and  if  they  are  elected  they  will  have  the 
power  to  control  legislation,  and  it  is  perfectly 
proper  that  you,  as  the  representatives  of  the  work- 
ers, should  put  these  questions  squarely  to  these 
candidates  and  demand  that  they  answer  them. 
They  are  very  simple  questions.  The  United  States 
court  has  rendered  a  decision  to  the  effect  that  a 


LABOR   AND   FREEDOM.  119 

trade  union  is  a  trust  and  that  if  it  exercises  its 
legitimate  powers  it  is  a  criminal  conspiracy  in  re- 
straint of  trade.  That  decision  of  the  court  con 
gress  has  the  power  to  set  aside,  and  if  a  man  stands 
as  a  candidate  for  congress,  in  the  upper  or  lower 
branch,  and  appeals  to  you  for  your  vote — and  bear 
in  mind  he  can  only  be  elected  by  your  vote — it  is 
right  and  proper  that  you  should  know  if  he  is  in 
favor  of  the  decision  or  opposed  to  it.  And  if  he 
is  in  favor  of  this  decision  he  is  your  enemy. 

Now,  these  candidates  are  trying  to  carry  water 
on  both  shoulders.  They  declare  they  will  give  both 
labor  and  capital  a  square  deal,  and  I  want  to  say 
that  is  impossible.  No  man  can  be  for  labor  with- 
out being  against  capital.  No  man  c<°n  be  for  capi- 
tal without  being  against  labor. 

Here  is  the  capitalist ;  here  are  the  workers.  Here 
is  the  capitalist  who  owns  the  mines;  here  are  the 
miners  who  work  in  the  mines.  There  is  so  much 
coal  produced.  There  is  a  quarrel  between  them 
over  a  division  of  the  product.  Each  wants  all  he 
can  get.  Here  we  have  the  class  struggle.  Now.  is 
it  possible  to  be  for  the  capitalist  without  being 
against  the  worker.  Are  their  interest  not  diamet- 
rically opposite? 

If  you  increase  the  share  of  the  capitalist  don't 
you  decrease  the  share  of  the  workers  ?  Can  a  door 
be  both  open  and  shut  at  the  same  time  ?  Can  you 
increase  both  the  workers'  and  the  capitalist's  share 
at  the  same  time  ?  There  is  just  so  much  produced, 
and  in  the  present  system  it  has  to  be  divided  be- 
tween the  capitalists  and  the  workers,  and  both 


120  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

sides  are  fighting  for  all  they  can  get.  and  this  is 
the  historic  class  struggle. 

We  have  now  no  revolutionary  organization  of 
the  workers  along  the  lines  of  this  class  struggle, 
and  that  is  the  demand  of  this  time.  The  pure  and 
simple  trade  union  will  no  longer  answer.  I  would 
not  take  from  it  the  least  credit  that  belongs  to  it. 
I  have  fought  under  its  banner  for  thirty  years.  I 
have  followed  it  through  victory  and  defeat,  gen- 
erally defeat.  I  realize  today  more  than  ever  before 
in  my  life  the  necessity  for  thorough  economic  or- 
ganization. It  must  be  made  complete.  Organiza- 
tion, like  everything  else,  is  subject  to  the  laws  of 
evolution.  Everything  changes,  my  brothers.  The 
tool  you  worked  with  twenty-five  years  ago  will  no 
longer  do.  It  would  do  then;  it  will  not  do  now. 
The  capitalists  are  combined  against  you.  They 
are  reducing  wages.  They  have  control  of  the 
courts.  They  are  doing  everything  they  can  to 
destroy  your  power.  You  have  got  to  follow  their 
example.  You  have  got  to  unify  your  forces.  You 
have  got  to  stand  together  shoulder  to  shoulder  on 
the  economic  and  political  fields  and  then  you  will 
make  substantial  progress  toward  emancipation. 

I  am  not  here,  my  brothers,  to  ask  you,  as  an 
economic  organization,  to  go  into  politics.  Not  at 
all.  If  I  could  have  you  pass  a  resolution  to  go 
into  politics  I  would  not  do  it.  If  you  were  in- 
clined to  go  into  active  politics  as  an  organization 
I  would  prevent  such  action  if  I  could.  You  repre 
sent  the  economic  organization  of  the  working  class 
and  this  organization  has  its  own  clearly  defined 


LABOR   AND   FEEEDOM.  121 

functions.  Your  economic  organization  can  never 
become  a  political  machine,  but  your  economic  or- 
ganization must  recognize  and  proclaim  the  neces- 
sity for  a  united  political  party.  You  ought  to  pass 
a  resolution  recognizing  the  class  struggle,  declar- 
ing your  opposition  to  the  capitalist  system  of  pri- 
vate ownership  of  the  means  of  production,  and 
urging  upon  the  working  class  the  necessity  for 
working  class  political  action.  That  is  as  far  as 
the  economic  organization  need  to  go.  If  you  were 
to  use  your  economic  organization  for  political  pur- 
poses you  would  disrupt  it,  you  would  wreck  it. 

But  I  would  not  have  you  renounce  politics, 
nor  be  afraid  to  discuss  anything.  Who  is  it  that 
is  so  fearful  you  will  discuss  politics?  It  is  the 
ward-heeling  politician,  and  isn't  it  because  he 
knows  very  well  that  if  you  ever  get  into  politics  in 
the  right  way  he  will  be  out  of  a  job  ?  He  is  afraid 
you  will  get  your  eyes  open. 

Why  should  a  union  man  be  afraid  to  discuss 
politics  ?  He  belongs  to  a  certain  party ;  his  father 
belonged  to  that  party  and  his  grandfather  be- 
longed to  that  party,  and  perhaps  his  great-grand- 
father belonged  to  the  same  party,  and  that  is 
probably  the  only  reason  he  can  give  for  belonging 
to  that  party.  He  don't  want  anybody  to  suggest 
to  him  the  possibility  of  being  lifted  out  of  that 
party  and  into  some  other. 

Parties  change.  The  party  that  was  good  forty 
years  ago  is  completely  outgrown  and  corrupt  and 
has  now  no  purpose  but  the  promotion  of  graft  and 
other  vicious  practices. 


122  LABOR    AND    FREEDOM. 

Workingmen  in  their  organized  capacity  must 
recognize  the  necessity  for  both  economic  and  poli- 
tical action.  I  would  not  have  you  declare  in  favor 
of  any  particular  political  party.  That  would  be 
another  mistake  which  would  have  disastrous  re- 
sults. If  I  could  have  you  pass  a  resolution  to  sup- 
port the  Socialist  party  I  would  not  do  it.  You 
can't  make  Socialists  by  passing  resolutions.  Men 
have  to  become  Socialists  by  study  and  experience, 
and  they  are  getting  the  experience  every  day. 

There  is  one  fact,  and  a  very  important  one,  that 
I  would  impress  upon  you,  and  that  is  the  necessity 
for  revolutionary  working  class  political  action. 

No  one  will  attempt  to  dispute  the  fact  that  our 
interests  as  workers  are  identical.  If  our  interests 
are  identical,  then  we  ought  to  unite.  We  ought  to 
unite  within  the  same  organization,  and  if  there  is 
a  strike  we  should  all  strike,  and  if  there  is  a  boy- 
cott all  of  us  ought  to  engage  in  it.  If  our  interests 
are  identical,  it  follows  that  we  ought  to  belong  to 
the  same  party  as  well  as  to  the  same  economic 
organization.  What  is  politics?  It  is  simply  the 
reflex  of  economics.  What  is  a  party?  It  is  the  ex- 
pression politically  of  certain  material  class  inter- 
ests. You  belong  to  that  party  that  you  believe  will 
promote  your  material  welfare.  Is  not  that  a  fact  ? 
If  you  find  yourself  in  a  party  that  attacks  your 
pocket  do  you  not  quit  that  party? 

Now,  if  you  are  in  a  party  that  opposes  your 
interests  it  is  because  you  don't  have  intelligence 
enough  to  understand  your  interests.  That  is 
where  the  capitalists  have  the  better  of  you.  As  a 


LABOR   AND    FRKKDO.M.  123 

rule,  they  are  intelligent.,  and  shrewd.  They  under- 
stand their  material  interests  and  how  to  .protect 
them.  You  find  the  capitalists  as  a  rule  belonging 
only  to  capitalist  parties.  They  don't;  join  a  work- 
ing-class party  and  they  don't  vote  the  Socialist 
ticket.  They  know  enough  to  know  that  Socialism 
is  opposed  to  their  economic  interests.  Xow,  hoth 
republican  and  democratic  parties  are  capitalist 
parties.  There  is  not  the  slightest  doubt  about  it. 
It  can  be  proved  in  a  hundred  different  ways.  You 
know  how  the  republican  party  treated  the  demands 
of  labor  in  its  recent  national  convention.  You 
know,  or  ought  to  know,  what  has  taken  place  un- 
der the  present  administration.  You  know,  or  ought 
to  know,  something  about  the  democratic  party,  na- 
tional, state  and  municipal.  If  there  are  those  who 
say  that  the  democratic  party  is  more  favorable  to 
labor  than  the  republican  party  it  is  only  necessary 
to  point  to  the  southern  states  where  it  has  ruled 
for  a  century.  In  no  other  part  of  the  nation  are 
workingmen  in  so  wretched  a  condition.  In  no 
other  part  are  working  people  so  miserably  housed, 
so  wretchedly  treated  as  they  are  in  the  southern 
states  where  the  democratic  party  rules  supreme. 

At  this  very  hour  miners  in  Alabama  are  on 
strike  under  a  democratic  administration.  I  know 
the  condition  there,  for  I  have  been  in  the  mines. 
I  know  many  of  those  men  personally.  I  know 
under  what  conditions  they  have  had  to  work.  I 
have  been  in  the  shacks  in  which  they  live  and  have 
seen  their  unhappy  wives  and  ill-fed  children.  I 
know  whereof  I  speak.  Only  in  the  last  extremity 


124  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

have  those  men  gone  out  on  strike.  They  bore  all 
these  cruel  wrongs  for  years  and  were  finally  forced 
out  on  strike.  And  then  what  happened?  The 
very  first  thing  the  democratic  governor  did  was 
to  send  the  soldiers  to  scab  the  mines.  It  doesn't 
make  any  difference  to  you,  if  workingmen  are 
starved  and  shot  down,  which  party  is  in  power.  It 
occurs  under  both  republican  and  democratic  ad- 
ministration. There  will  be  no  change  as  long  as 
you  continue  to  support  the  prevailing  capitalist 
system,  based  upon  the  private  ownership  of  the 
tools  with  which  workingmen  work  and  without 
which  they  are  doomed  to  slavery  and  starvation. 

Now,  I  repeat  that  this  body  should  declare 
against  this  system  of  private  ownership  and  in 
favor  of  the  collective  ownership  by  the  workers  of 
the  tools  of  production.  This  will  give  you  a  clear 
aim  and  definite  object.  This  will  make  your  move- 
ment revolutionary  in  its  ultimate  purpose,  as  it 
ought  to  be,  and  as  for  immediate  concessions  in 
the  way  of  legislation  by  capitalist  representatives 
and  more  favorable  working  conditions,  you  work- 
ingmen have  only  to  poll  two  million  Socialist  votes 
this  fall,  and  you  will  get  those  concessions  freely 
and  you  will  not  get  them  in  any  other  way.  You 
will  not  frighten,  you  will  not  move  the  great  cor- 
porations by  dividing  your  votes  between  the  re- 
publican and  democratic  parties.  It  doesn't  make 
any  difference  which  of  these  two  parties  wins,  you 
lose !  They  are  both  capitalist  parties  and  I  don't 
ask  you  to  take  my  mere  word  for  it.  I  simply  ask, 
my  brothers,  that  you  read  and  study  the  platforms 


LABOR    AND    FREEDOM.  125 

for  yourself.  I  beg  of  you  not  to  have  an  ignorant, 
superstitious  reverence  for  any  political  party.  It 
is  your  misfortune  if  you  are  the  blind  follower  of 
any  political  leader,  or  any  other  leader.  It  is  your 
duty  as  &  workingman,  your  duty  to  yourself,  your 
family,  to  quit  a  party  the  very  instant  you  find 
that  that  party  no  longer  serves  you ;  and  if  you 
continue  to  adhere  to  a  party  that  antagonizes  your 
interests,  if  you  continue  to  support  a  system  in 
which  you  are  degraded,  then  you  have  no  right  to 
complain.  You  must  submit  to  what  comes,  for 
you  yourself  are  responsible. 

Let  me  impress  this  fact  upon  your  minds :  the 
labor  question,  which  is  really  the  question  of  all 
humanity,  will  never  be  solved  until  it  is  solved 
by  the  working  class.  It  will  never  be  solved  for 
you  by  the  capitalists.  It  will  never  be  solved  for 
you  by  the  politicians.  It  will  remain  unsolved  un- 
til you  yourselves  solve  it.  As  long  as  )rou  can 
stand  and  are  willing  to  stand  these  conditions, 
these  conditions  will  remain;  but  when  you  unite 
all  over  the  land,  when  you  present  a  solid  class- 
conscious  phalanx,  economically  and  politically, 
there  is  no  power  on  this  earth  that  can  stand  be- 
tween you  and  complete  emancipation. 

As  individauls  you  are  helpless,  but  united  you 
represent  an  irresistible  power. 

Is  there  any  doubt  in  the  mind  of  any  thinking 
workingman  that  we  are  in  the  midst  of  a  class 
struggle  ?  Is  there  any  doubt  that  the  workingman 
ought  to  own  the  tool  he  works  with?  You  will 
never  own  the  tool  you  work  with  under  the  present 


126  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

system.  This  whole  system  is  based  upon  the  pri- 
vate ownership  by  the  capitalist  of  the  tools  and 
the  wage-slavery  of  the  working  class,  and  as  long 
as  the  tools  are  privately  owned  by  the  capitalists 
the  great  mass  of  workers  will  be  wage-slaves. 

You  may,  at  times,  temporarily  better  your  con- 
dition within  certain  limitations,  but  you  will  still 
remain  wage-slaves,  and  why  wage-slaves?  For  just 
one  reason  and  no  other — you  have  got  to  work.  To 
work  you  have  got  to  have  tools,  and  if  you  have 
no  tools  you  have  to  beg  for  work,  and  if  you  have 
got  to  beg  for  work  the  man  who  owns  the  tools  you 
use  will  determine  the  conditions  under  which  you 
shall  work.  As  long  as  he  owns  your  tools  he  owns 
your  job,  and  if  he  owns  your  job  he  is  the  master 
of  your  fate.  You  are  in  no  sense  a  free  man.  You 
are  subject  to  his  interest  and  to  his  will.  He  de- 
cides whether  you  shall  work  or  not.  Therefore,  he 
decides  whether  you  shall  live  or  die.  And  in  that 
humiliating  position  any  one  who  tries  to  persude 
you  that  you  are  a  free  man  is  guilty  of  insulting 
your  intelligence.  You  will  never  be  free,  you  will 
never  stand  erect  in  your  own  manly  self-reliance 
until  you  are  the  master  of  the  tools  you  work  with, 
and  when  you  are  you  can  freely  work  without  the 
consent  of  any  master,  and  when  you  do  work  you 
will  get  all  your  labor  produces. 

As  it  is  now  the  lion's  share  goes  to  the  capitalist 
for  which  he  does  nothing,  while  you  get  a  small 
fraction  to  feed,  clothe  and  shelter  yourself,  and 
reproduce  yourself  in  the  form  of  labor  power. 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  127 

That  is  all  you  get  out  of  it  and  all  you  ever  will 
get  in  the  capitalist  system. 

Oh,  my  brothers,  can  you  be  satisfied  with  your 
lot  ?  Will  you  insist  that  life  shall  continue  a  mere 
struggle  for  existence  and  one  prolonged  misery 
to  which  death  comes  as  a  blessed  relief? 

How  is  it  with  the  average  workingman  today? 
I  am  not  referring  to  the  few  who  have  been  fa- 
vored and  who  have  fared  better  than  the  great 
mass,  but  I  am  asking  how  it  is  witli  the  average 
workingman  in  this  system?  Admit  that  he  has 
a  job.  What  assurance  has  he  that  it  is  his  in 
twenty-four  hours  ?  I  have  a  letter  from  an  expert 
glass  worker  saying  that  the  new  glass  machine 
which  has  recently  been  tested,  has  proven  conclu- 
sively that  bottles  can  be  made  without  a  glass 
blower.  Five  or  six  boys  with  these  machines  can 
make  as  many  bottles  as  ten  expert  blowers  could 
make.  Machinery  is  conquering  every  department 
of  activity.  It  is  displacing  more  and  more  work- 
ingmen  and  making  the  lot  of  those  who  have  em- 
ployment more  and  more  insecure.  Admit  that  a 
man  has  a  job.  What  assurance  has  he  that  he  is 
going  to  keep  it  ?  A  machine  may  be  invented.  He 
may  offend  the  boss.  He  may  engage  in  a  little 
agitation  in  the  interest  of  his  class.  He  is  marked 
as  an  agitator,  he  is  discharged,  and  then  what  is 
his  status? 

The  minute  he  is  discharged  he  has  to  hunt  for  a 
new  buyer  for  his  labor  power.  He  owns  no  tools ; 
the  tools  are  great  machines.  He  can't  compete 
against  them  with  his  bare  hands.  He  has  got  to 


128  LABOR   AND    FREEDOM. 

work.  There  is  only  one  condition  under  which  he 
can  work  and  that  is  when  he  sells  his  labor  power, 
his  energy,  his  very  life  currents,  and  thus  disposes 
of  himself  in  daily  installments.  He  is  not  sold 
from  the  block,  as  was  the  chattel  slave.  He  sells 
ten  hours  of  himself  every  day  in  exchange  for  just 
enough  to  keep  himself  in  that  same  slavish  condi- 
tion. 

The  machine  he  works  with  has  to  be  oiled,  and 
he  has  to  be  fed,  and  the  oil  sustains  the  same  rela- 
tion to  the  machine  that  food  does  to  him.  If  he 
could  work  without  food  his  wage  would  be  reduced 
to  the  vanishing  point.  That  is  the  status  of  the 
workingman  today. 

What  can  the  present  economic  organization  do 
to  improve  the  condition  of  the  workingman  ?  Very 
little,  if  anything.  If  you  have  a  wife  and  two  or 
three  children,  and  you  take  the  possibilities  into 
consideration,  this  question  ought  to  give  you  grave 
concern.  You  know  that  it  is  the  sons  of  working- 
men  who  become  vagabonds  and  tramps,  and  who 
are  sent  to  jail,  and  it  is  the  daughters  of  working- 
men  who  are  forced  into  houses  of  shame. 

You  are  a  workingman,  you  live  in  capitalism, 
and  you  have  nothing  but  your  labor  power,  and 
you  don't  know  whether  you  are  going  to  find  a 
buyer  or  not.  But  even  if  you  do  find  a  master,  if 
you  have  a  job,  can  you  boast  of  being  a  man  among 
men? 

No  man  can  rightly  claim  to  be  a  man  unless  he 
is  free.  There  is  something  godlike  about  man- 


LABOR    AND    FREEDOM.  129 

hood.  Manhood  doesn't  admit  of  ownership.  Man- 
hood scorns  to  be  regarded  as  property. 

Do  you  know  whether  you  have  a  job  or  not? 
Do  you  know  how  long  you  are  going  to  have  one  ? 
And  when  you  are  out  of  a  job  what  can  your  union 
do  for  you  ?  I  was  down  at  Coal  gate,  Oklahoma,  on 
the  Fourth  of  July  last,  where  six  hundred  miners 
have  been  out  of  work  for  four  long  months.  They 
are  all  organized.  There  are  the  mines  and  machin- 
ery, and  the  miners  are  eager  to  work.  But  not  ;i 
tap  of  work  is  being  done,  and  the  miners  and 
their  families  are  suffering,  and  most  of  them  live 
in  houses  that  are  unfit  for  habitation.  This  awful 
condition  is  never  going  to  be  changed  in  capital- 
ism. There  is  one  way  only  and  that  is  to  wipe  out 
capitalism,  and  to  do  that  we  have  to  get  together, 
and  when  we  do  that  we  will  find  the  way  to  eman- 
cipation. 

You  may  not  agree  with  me  now,  but  make  note 
of  what  I  am  saying.  The  time  is  near  when  you 
will  be  forced  into  economic  and  political  solidarity. 

The  republican  and  democratic  parties  are  alike 
capitalist  parties.  Some  of  you  may  think  that  Mr. 
Bryan,  if  elected,  will  do  great  things  for  the  work- 
ers. Conditions  will  remain  substantially  the  same. 
We  will  still  be  under  capitalism.  It  will  not  mat- 
ter how  you  many  tinker  with  the  tariff  or  the  cur- 
rency. The  tools  are  still  the  property  of  the 
capitalists  and  you  are  still  at  their  mercy. 

Now  let  me  show  you  that  Mr.  Bryan  is  no  more 
your  friend  than  is  Mr.  Taft.  You  remember  when 
the  officials  of  the  Western  Federation  of  Miners 


130  LABOR   AND    FREEDOM. 

were  kidnaped  in  Colorado,  and  when  it  was  said 
they  should  never  leave  Idaho  alive.  It  was  the 
determination  of  the  Mine  Owners'  Association  that 
these  brave  and  loyal  union  leaders  should  be  foully 
murdered.  When  these  brothers  of  ours  were  bru- 
tally kidnaped  by  the  collusion  of  the  capitalist  gov- 
ernors of  two  states,  every  true  friend  of  the  work- 
ing class  cried  out  in  protest.  Did  Mr.  Bryan  utter 
a  word?  Mr.  Bryan  was  the  recognized  champion 
of  the  working  class.  He  was  in  a  position  to  be 
heard.  A  protest  from  him  would  have  tremendous 
weight  with  the  American  people.  But  his  labor 
friends  could  not  unlock  his  lips.  Not  one  word 
would  he  speak.  Not  one. 

Organized  labor,  however,  throughout  the  length 
and  breadth  of  the  land,  took  the  matter  in  hand 
promptly  and  registered  its  protest  in  a  way  that 
made  the  nation  quake.  The  Mine  Owners'  Asso- 
ciation took  to  the  tall  timber.  Our  brother  union- 
ists were  acquitted,  vindicated,  and  stood  forth 
without  a  blemish  upon  their  honor,  and  after  they 
were  free  once  more,  Mr.  Bryan  said,  "I  felt  all  the 
time  that  they  were  not  guilty." 

Now  if  your  faithful  leaders  are  kidnaped  and 
threatened  to  be  hanged,  and  you  call  upon  a  man 
who  claims  to  be  your  friend,  to  come  to  the  rescue 
and  he  refuses  to  say  a  word,  to  give  the  least  help, 
do  you  still  think  he  is  your  friend?  Mr.  Br}ran 
had  his  chance  to  prove  his  friendship  at  a  time 
when  labor  sorely  needed  friends,  when  organized 
labor  cried  out  in  agony  and  distress.  But  not  a 
word  escaped  his  lips. 


LABOR    AXD    FREEDOM.  131 

Why  did  not  Mr.  Byran  speak  ?  He  did  not  dare. 
Mr.  Bryan  knew  very  well  that  the  kidnapers  of 
those  men  were  his  personal  friends.,  the  association 
of  rich  mine  owners,  who  had  largely  furnished  his 
campaign  funds.  For  Mr.  Bryan  personally  I  have 
always  had  a  high  regard.  I  am  not  attacking  him 
in  any  personal  sense  at  all. 

But  the  extremity  to  which  a  man  is  driven  who 
tries  to  serve  both  capital  and  labor !  It  can't  be 
done.  Mr.  Bryan  did  not  dare  to  speak  for  labor 
because  if  he  had  he  would  have  turned  the  mine 
owning  capitalists  against  him.  He  is  afraid  to 
speak  out  very  loudly  for  capitalists  for  fear  the 
workers  will  get  after  him.  He  has  compromised 
all  around  for  the  sake  of  being  president. 

You  have  heard  him  denounce  Roger  Sullivan. 
Mr.  Bryan,  four  years  ago,  in  denouncing  this  cor- 
ruptionist,  at  the  time  of  the  nomination  of  Alton 
B.  Parker,  said  he  was  totally  destitute  of  honor 
and  compared  him  to  a  train  robber.  Notwith- 
standing this  fact,  Mr.  Bryan  recently  invited  Sul- 
livan to  his  home  in  Lincoln,  took  him  by  the  hand 
and  introduced  him  to  his  family.  Mr.  Bryan 
also  invited  Charley  Murphy,  the  inexpressibly 
rotten  Tammany  heeler  of  New  York.  Mr.  Bryan 
had  him  come  to  Lincoln  so  as  to  conciliate  Tam- 
many, and  they  were  photographed  together  shak- 
ing hands. 

No  man  can  serve  both  capital  and  labor  at  the 
same  time. 

You  don't  admit  the  capitalists  to  your  union. 
They  organize  their  union  to  fight  you.  You  or- 


132  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

ganize  your  union  to  fight  them.  Their  union  con- 
sists wholly  of  capitalists;  your  union  consists 
wholly  of  workingmen.  It  is  along  the  same  line 
that  you  have  got  to  organize  politically.  You 
don't  unite  with  capitalists  on  the  economic  field ; 
why  should  you  politically  ?  . 

You  have  got  to  extend  your  cUss  line.  You 
can  declare  yourselves  in  this  convention  and  make 
your  position  clear  to  the  world.  You  can  give 
hope  and  inspire  confidence  throughout  the  state. 

And  now  in  closing,  I  wish  to  thank  you,  each  of 
you,  from  my  heart,  for  your  kindness.  I  appre- 
ciate the  opportunity  you  have  given  me  to  address 
you  and  whether  you  agree  with  me  or  not,  I  leave 
you  wishing  you  success  in  your  deliberations  and 
hoping  for  the  early  triumph  of  the  labor  move 
ment. 


The  convention  passed  a  unanimous  rising  vote 
of  thanks  at  the  close  of  the  address. 


POLITICAL  APPEAL  TO  AMERICAN 
WORKERS. 

Opening     Speech     of    National     Campaign,     Riverview     Park, 
Chicago,    June   16,    1912. 

Friends,  Comrades  and  Fellow-Workers:  We 
are  today  entering  upon  a  national  campaign  of 
the  profoundest  interest  to  the  working  class  and 
the  country.  In  this  campaign  there  are  but  two 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  133 

parties  and  but  one  issue.  There  is  no  longer 
even  the  pretense  of  difference  between  the  so-called 
Eepublican  and  Democratic  parties.  They  are  sub- 
stantially one  in  what  they  stand  for.  They  are 
opposed  to  each  other  on  no  question  of  principle 
but  purely  in  a  contest  for  the  spoils  of  office. 

To  the  workers  of  the  country  these  two  parties 
in  name  are  one  in  fact.  They,  or  rather.,  it, 
stands  for  capitalism,  for  the  private  ownership  of 
the  means  of  subsistence,  for  the  exploitation  ol 
the  workers,  and  for  wage-slavery. 

Both  of  these  old  capitalist  class  machines  are 
going  to  pieces.  Having  outlived  their  time  they 
have  become  corrupt  and  worse  than  useless  and 
now  present  a  spectacle  of  political  degeneracy 
never  before  witnessed  in  this  or  any  other  coun- 
try. Both  are  torn  by  dissension  and  rife  with  dis- 
integration. The  evolution  of  the  forces  underly- 
ing them  is  tearing  them  from  their  foundations 
and  sweeping  them  to  inevitable  destruction. 

We  have  before  us  in  this  city  at  this  hour  an 
exhibition  of  capitalist  machine  politics  which 
lays  bare  the  true  inwardness  of  the  situation  in 
the  capitalist  camp.  Nothing  that  any  Socialist 
has  ever  charged  in  the  way  of  corruption  is  to 
be  compared  with  what  Taft  and  Eoosevelt  have 
charged  and  proven  upon  one  another.  They  are 
both  good  Republicans,  just  as  Harmon  and  Bryan 
are  both  good  Democrats — and  they  are  all  agreed 
that  Socialism  would  be  the  ruination  of  the  coun- 
try. 


134  LABOR   AND    FREEDOM. 

Puppets  of  the  Ruling  Class. 

Tai't  and  Roosevelt  in  the  exploitation  of  their 
boasted  individualism,,  and  their  mad  fight  for 
official  spoils  have  been  forced  to  expose  the  whole 
game  of  capitalist  class  politics  and  reveal  them- 
selves and  the  whole  brood  of  capitalist  politicians 
in  their  true  role  before  the  American  people.  They 
are  all  the  mere  puppets  of  the  ruling  class.  They 
are  literally  bought,  paid  for  and  owned,  body  and 
soul,  by  the  powers  that  are  exploiting  this  nation 
and  enslaving  and  robbing  its  toilers. 

What  difference  is  there,  judged  by  what  they 
stand  for,  between  Taft,  Roosevelt,  La  Follette, 
Harmon,  Wilson,  Clark  and  Bryan? 

Do  they  not  all  alike  stand  for  the  private  own- 
ership of  industry  and  the  wage-slavery  of  the 
working  class? 

What  earthly  difference  can  it  make  to  the  mil- 
lions of  workers  whether  the  Republican  or  Demo- 
cratic political  machine  of  capitalism  is  in  com- 
mission ? 

That  these  two  parties  differ  in  name  only  and 
are  one  in  fact  is  demonstrated  beyond  cavil  when- 
ever and  wherever  the  Socialist  party  constitutes 
a  menace  to  their  misrule.  Milwaukee  is  a  case  in 
point  and  there  are  many  others.  Confronted  by 
the  Socialists  these  long  pretended  foes  are  forced 
to  drop  their  masks  and  fly  into  each  other's  arms. 

Twin  Agencies  of  Wall  Street. 
The  baseness,  hypocrisy  and  corruption  of  these 
twin  political  agencies  of  Wall  Street  and  the  nil- 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  135 

ing  class  cannot  be  expressed  in  words.  The 
imagination  is  taxed  in  contemplating  their 
crimes.  There  is  no  depth  of  dishonor  to  which 
they  have  not  descended — no  depth  of  depravity 
they  have  not  sounded. 

To  the  extent  that  they  control  elections  the 
franchise  is  corrupted  and  the  electorate  debauched, 
and  when  they  succeed  in  power  it  is  but  to  exe- 
cute the  will  of  the  Wall  Street  interests  which 
finance  and  control  them.  The  police,  the  militia, 
the  regular  army,  the  courts  and  all  the  powers 
lodged  in  class  government  are  all  freely  at  the 
service  of  the  ruling  class,  especially  in  suppress- 
ing discontent  among  the  slaves  of  the  factories, 
mills  and  mines,  and  keeping  them  safely  in  sub- 
jugation to  their  masters. 

How  can  any  intelligent,  pelf-respecting  wage- 
worker  give  his  support  to  either  of  these  corrupt 
capitalist  parties?  The  emblem  of  a  capitalist 
party  on  a  working  man  is  the  badge  of  his  ignor- 
ance, his  servility  and  shame. 

Marshalled  in  battle  array,  against  these  corrupt 
capitalist  parties  is  the  young,  virile,  revolutionary 
Socialist  party,  the  party  of  the  awakening  work- 
ing class,  whose  red  banners,  inscribed  with  the 
inspiring  shibboleth  of  class-conscious  solidarity, 
proclaim  the  coming  triumph  of  international  So- 
cialism and  the  emancipation  of  the  workers  of 
the  world. 

The  Two  Political  Force?. 

Contrast  these  two  political  forces  and  the  par- 
ties through  which  these  forces  find  concrete  ex- 


136  LABOR   AND    FREEDOM. 

pression !  On  the  one  side  are  the  trusts,  the  cor- 
porations, the  banks,  the  railroads,  the  plutocrats, 
the  politicians,  the  bribe-givers,  the  ballot-box  stuf- 
fers,  the  repeaters,  the  parasites,  retainers  and  job- 
hunters  of  all  descriptions;  the  corruption  funds, 
the  filth,  slime  and  debauchery  of  ruling  class  poli- 
tics; the  press  and  pulpit  and  college,  all  wearing 
capitalism's  collar,  and  all  in  concert  applauding 
its  "patriotism"  and  glorifying  in  its  plundering 
and  profligate  regime. 

On  the  other  side  are  the  workers  and  pro- 
ducers of  the  nation  coming  into  consciousness  of 
their  interests  and  their  power  as  a  class,  filled 
with  the  spirit  of  solidarity  and  thrilled  with  the 
new-born  power  that  throbs  within  them;  scorn- 
ing further  affiliation  with  the  parties  that  so  long 
used  them  to  their  own  degradation  and  looking 
trustfully  to  themselves  and  to  each  other  for  re- 
lief from  oppression  and  for  emancipation  from 
the  power  which  has  so  long  enslaved  them. 

Honest  toil,  useful  labor,  against  industrial  rob- 
bery and  political  rottenness ! 

These  are  the  two  forces  which  are  arrayed 
against  each  other  in  deadly  and  uncompromising 
hostility  in  the  present  campaign. 

Corrupt  Capitalist  Politics. 

We  are  not  here  to  play  the  filthy  game  of  capi 
talist  politic?.     There  is  the  same  relative  differ 
ence  between  capitalist  class  politics  and  working 
class  politics  that  there  is  between  capitalism  and 
Socialism. 


LABOR   AND    FREKDOM.  137 

Capitalism,  having  its  foundation  in  the  slavery 
and  exploitation  of  the  masses,  can  only  rule  by 
corrupt  means  and  its  politics  are  essentially  the 
reflex  of  its  low  and  debasing  economic  character. 

The  Socialist  party  as  the  party  of  the  work 
ing  class  stands  squarely  upon  its  principles  in 
making  its  appeal  to  the  workers  of  the  nation. 
It  is  not  begging  for  votes,  nor  seeking  for  votes, 
nor  bargaining  for  votes.  It  is  not  in  the  vote  mar- 
ket. It  wants  votes,  but  only  of  those  who  want  it 
— those  who  recognize  it  as  their  party  and  come 
to  it  of  their  own  free  will. 

If,  as  the  Socialist  candidate  for  president,  1 
were  seeking  office  and  the  spoils  of  office  I  would 
be  a  traitor  to  the  Socialist  party  and  a  disgrace 
to  the  working  class. 

To  be  surp  we  want  all  the  votes  we  can  get 
and  all  that  are  coming  to  us  but  only  as  a 
means  of  developing  the  political  power  of  the 
working  class  in  the  struggle  for  industrial  free- 
dom, and  not  that  we  may  revel  in  the  spoils  of 
office. 

Political  Power. 

The  workers  have  never  yet  developed  or  made 
use  of  their  political  power.  They  have  played  the 
game  of  their  masters  for  the  benefit  of  the  master 
class — and  now  many  of  them,  disgusted  with  their 
own  blind  and  stupid  performance,  are  renouncing 
politics  and  refusing  to  see  any  difference  between 
the  capitalist  parties  financed  by  the  ruling  class 
to  perpetuate  class  rule  and  the  Socialist  party  or- 


138  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

ganized  and  financed  by  the  workers  themselves 
as  a  means  of  wresting  the  control  of  government 
and  of  industry  from  the  capitalists  and  making 
the  working  class  the  ruling  class  of  the  nation 
and  the  world. 

The  Socialist  party  enters  this  campaign  under 
conditions  that  could  scarcely  be  more  favorable 
to  the  cause  it  represents.  For  the  first  time  every 
state  in  the  union  is  now  organized  and  represented 
in  the  national  party,  and  every  state  will  have 
a  full  ticket  in  the  field :  and  for  the  first  time 
the  Socialists  of  the  United  States  have  a  party 
which  takes  its  rightful  place  in  the  great  revolu- 
tionary working  class  movement  of  the  world. 

Four  years  ago  with  a  membership  of  scarcely 
forty  thousand  we  succeeded  in  polling  nearly  half 
a  million  votes;  this  year  when  the  campaign  is 
fairly  opened  we  shall  have  a  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dues-paying  members  and  an  organiza- 
tion in  all  regards  incalculably  superior  to  that 
we  had  in  the  last  campaign. 

We  are  united,  militant,  aggressive,  enthusias- 
tic as  never  before.  From  the  Eastern  coast  to  the 
Pacific  shore  and  from  the  Canadian  line  to  the 
Mexican  gulf  the  red  banner  of  the  proletarian 
revolution  floats  unchallenged  and  the  exultant 
shouts  of  the  advancing  hosts  of  labor  are  borne 
on  all  the  breezes. 

There  Is  But  One  I?svc. 

There  is  but  one  issue  that  apr»eal=;  to  thr-  c™. 
army — the  unconditional  surrender  of  the 


LABOR    A"NTD    FKEKDOM.  139 

capitalist  class.  To  be  sure  this  cannot  be  achieved 
in  a  day  and  in  the  meantime  the  party  enforces 
to  the  extent  of  its  power  its  immediate  demands 
and  presses  steadily  onward  toward  the  goal.  It 
has  its  constructive  program  by  means  of  which 
it  develops  its  power  and  its  capacity,  step  by  step, 
seizing  upon  every  bit  of  vantage  to  advance  and 
strengthen  its  position,  but  never  for  a  moment 
mistaking  reform  for  revolution  and  never  losing 
eight  of  the  ultimate  goal. 

Socialist  reform  must  not  be  confounded  with 
so-called  capitalist  reform.  The  latter  is  shrewdly 
designed  to  buttress  capitalism ;  the  former  to  over- 
throw it.  Socialist  reform  vitalizes  and  promotes 
the  social  revolution. 

The  National  Convention. 

The  national  convention  of  the  Socialist  party 
recently  held  at  Indianapolis  was  in  all  respects 
the  greatest  gathering  of  representative  Socialists 
ever  held  in  the  United  States.  The  delegates 
there  assembled  demonstrated  their  ability  to 
deal  efficiently  with  all  the  vita]  problems  which 
confront  the  party.  The  convention  was  permeated 
in  every  fiber  with  the  class-conscious,  revolutionary 
spirit  and  was  thoroughly  representative  of  the 
working  class.  Every  question  that  came  before 
that  body  was  considered  and  disposed  of  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  principles  and  program  of  the 
international  movement  and  on  the  basis  of  its 
relation  to  and  effect  upon  the  working  class. 

The  platform  adopted  by  the  convention  is  a 


140  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

clear  and  cogent  enunciation  of  the  party's  prin- 
ciples and  a  frank  and  forceful  statement  of  the 
party's  mission.  This  platform  embodies  labor's 
indictment  of  the  capitalist  system  and  demands 
the  abolition  of  that  system.  It  proclaims  the  iden- 
tity of  interests  of  all  workers  and  appeals  to  them 
in  clarion  tones  to  unite  for  their  emancipation. 
It  points  out  the  class  struggle  and  emphasizes 
the  need  of  the  economic  and  political  unity  of 
the  workers  to  wage  that  struggle  to  a  successful 
issue.  It  declares  relentless  war  upon  the  entire 
capitalist  regime  in  the  name  of  the  rising  work- 
ing class  and  demands  in  uncompromising  terms 
the  overthrow  of  wage-slavery  and  the  inauguration 
of  industrial  democracy. 

In  this  platform  of  the  Socialist  party  the  his- 
toric development  of  society  is  clearly  stated  and 
the  fact  made  manifest  that  the  time  has  come  for 
the  workers  of  the  world  to  shake  off  their  oppres- 
sors and  exploiters,  put  an  end  to  their  age-long 
servitude,  and  make  themselves  the  masters  of  the 
world. 

To  this  end  the  Socialist  party  has  been  organ- 
ized ;  to  this  end  it  is  bending  all  its  energies  and 
taxing  all  its  resources;  to  this  end  it  makes  its 
appeal  to  the  workers  and  their  sympathizers 
throughout  the  nation. 

The  Capitalist  System  Condemned. 
In  the  name  of  the  workers  the  Socialist  party 
condemns  the  capitalist  system.     In  the  name  of 
freedom  it  condemns  wage-slavery.     In  the  name 


LABOR    AND    FREEDOM.  141 

of  modern  industry  it  condemns  poverty,  idleness 
and  famine.  In  the  name  of  peace  it  condemns 
war.  In  the  name  of  civilization  it  condemns  the 
murder  of  little  children.  In  the  name  of  enlight- 
enment it  condemns  ignorance  and  superstition. 
In  the  name  of  the  future  it  arraigns  the  past  at 
the  bar  of  the  present,  and  in  the  name  of  human- 
ity it  demands  social  justice  for  every  man,  woman 
and  child. 

The  Socialist  party  knows  neither  color,  creed, 
sex,  nor  race.     It  knows  no  aliens  among  the  op 
pressed  and  down-trodden.     It  is  first  and  last  the 
party  of  the  workers,  regardless  of  their  national 
ity,  proclaiming  their  interests,  voicing  their  as 
pirations,  and  fighting  their  battles. 

It  matters  not  where  the  slaves  of  the  earth 
lift  their  bowed  bodies  from  the  dust  au^  seek 
to  shake  off  their  fetters,  or  lighten  the  burden  that 
oppresses  them,  the  Socialist  party  is  pledged  to  en- 
courage and  support  them  to  the  full  extent  of  its 
power.  It  matters  not  to  what  union  they  belong, 
or  if  they  belong  to  any  union,  the  Socialist  party 
which  sprang  from  their  struggle,  their  oppres- 
sion, and  their  aspiration,  is  with  them  through 
good  and  evil  report,  in  trial  and  defeat,  until 
at  last  victory  is  inscribed  upon  their  banner. 

Fighting  Labor's  Battles. 

Whether  it  be  in  the  textile  mills  of  Lawrence 
and  other  mills  of  New  England  where  men,  wom- 
en and  children  are  ground  into  dividends  to  gorge 
a  heartless,  mill-owning  plutocracy;  or  whether  it 


142  LABOR   AND    FREEDOM. 

be  in  the  lumber  and  railroad  camps  of  the  far 
Northwest  where  men  are  herded  like  cattle  and 
insulted,  beaten  and  deported  for  peaceably  assert- 
ing the  legal  right  to  organize;  or  in  the  conflict 
with  the  civilized  savages  of  San  Diego  where  men 
who  dare  be  known  as  members  of  the  Industrial 
Workers  of  the  World  are  kidnaped,  tortured  and 
murdered  in  cold  blood  in  the  name  of  law  and 
order;  or  in  the  city  of  Chicago  where  that  gorgon 
of  capitalism,  the  newspaper  trust,  is  beni  upon 
crushing  and  exterminating  the  pressmen's  un- 
ion ;  or  along  the  Harriman  lines  of  railroad  where 
the  slaves  of  the  shops  have  been  driven  to  the  al- 
ternative of  striking  or  sacrificing  the  last  vestige 
of  their  manhood  and  self-respect,  in  all  these  bat- 
tles of  the  workers  against  their  capitalist  oppres- 
sors the  Socialist  party  has  the  most  vital  concern 
and  is  freely  pledged  to  "render  them  all  the  assist- 
ance in  its  power.  •  | 

These  are  the  battles  of  the  workers  in  the  war 
of  the  classes  and  the  battles  of  the  workers, 
wherever  and  however  fought,  are  always  and  ev- 
erywhere the  battles  of  the  Socialist  party. 

When  Moyer,  Haywood  and  Pettibone  were 
seized  by  the  brutal  mine  owners  of  the  western 
states  and  by  their  prostitute  press  consigned  to 
the  gallows,  the  Socialist  party  lost  not  an  hour 
in  going  to  the  rescue,  and  but  for  its  prompt  and 
vigorous  action  and  the  resolute  work  of  its  press 
another  monstrous  crime  against  the  working  class 
would  have  blackened  the  pages  of  American  his- 
tory. 


LABOK    AND    FUKKDO.M.  14U 

Persecution  of  Loyal  Leaders. 

In  the  unceasing  struggle  of  the  workers  with 
their  exploiters  the  truly  loyal  leaders  are  always 
marked  for  persecution.  Joseph  Ettor  and  Arturo 
G'iovannitti  would  not  now  he  in  jail  awaiting  trial 
for  murder  had  they  betrayed  the  slaves  of  the 
Lawrence  mills.  They  were  staunch  and  true; 
their  leadership  made  for  industrial  unity  and 
victory,  and  for  this  reason  alone  the  enraged 
and  defeated  mill-owners  are  now  hent  upon  send- 
ing them  to  the  electric  chair. 

These  fellow-workers  of  ours  who  are  now  on 
trial  for  murder  are  not  one  whit  more  guilty  of 
the  crime  with  which  they  are  charged  than  I  am. 
The  man  who  committed  the  murder  was  a  police- 
man, an  officer  of  the  law ;  the  victim  of  the  crime 
was  as  usual  a  striker,  a  wage-slave,  a  poor  work- 
ing girl.  Ettor  and  Giovannitti  were  two  miles 
from  the  scene  at  the  time  and  when  the  news  came 
to  them  they  broke  into  tears — and  these  two  work- 
ingmen  who  would  have  protected  that  poor  girl's 
life  with  their  own  are  now  to  he  tried  for  her 
murder. 

Was  ever  anything  in  all  the  annals  of  heart- 
less persecution  more  monstrous  than  this?  Have 
the  mill-owners  gone  stark  mad?  Have  they  in 
their  brutal  rage  become  stone-blind?  Whatever 
the  answer  may  be,  it  is  certain  that  the  Socialist 
party  and  organized  labor  in  general  will  never 
see  these  two  innocent  workers  murdered  in  cold 
blood,  nor  will  their  agitation  and  protest  cease 
until  they  have  been  given  their  freedom. 


144  LABOR   AND    FREEDOM. 

The  Campaign  Now  Opening. 

In  the  great  campaign  now  pending  the  people, 
especially  the  toilers  and  producers,  will  be  far 
more  receptive  to  the  truths  of  Socialism  than  ever 
before. 

Since  the  last  national  campaign  they  have  had 
four  years  more  of  capitalism,  of  political  corrup- 
tion, industrial  stagnation,  low  wages  and  high 
prices,  and  many,  very  many  of  them  have  come  to 
realize  that  these  conditions  are  inherent  in  the 
capitalist  system  and  that  it  is  vain  and  foolish 
to  hope  for  relief  through  the  political  parties  of 
that  system.  These  people  have  had  their  eyes 
opened  in  spite  of  themselves.  They  have  been 
made  to  see  what  the  present  system  means  to  them 
and  to  their  children,  and  they  have  been  forced 
to  turn  against  it  by  the  sheer  instinct  of  self- 
preservation. 

They  look  abroad  and  they  see  this  fair  land 
being  rapidly  converted  into  the  private  preserves 
of  a  plutocracy  as  brutal  and  defiant  as  any  privi- 
leged class  that  ever  ruled  in  a  foreign  despotism ; 
they  see  machinery  and  misery  go  hand  in  hand : 
they  see  thousands  idle  and  poverty-stricken  all 
about  them  while  a  few  are  glutted  to  degeneracy ; 
they  see  troops  of  child-slaves  ground  into  luxuries 
for  the  rich  while  their  fathers  have  become  a  drug 
on  the  labor  market;  they  see  parasites  in  palaces 
and  automobiles  and  honest  workers  in  hovels  or 
tramping  the  ties :  they  see  the  politics  of  the  rul- 
ing corporations  dripping  with  corruption  and  pu- 
tridity; they  see  vice  and  crime  rampant,  prosti- 


LABOE   AND   FREEDOM.  145 

tution  eating  like  a  cancer,  and  insanity  and  dis- 
ease sapping  the  mental  and  physical  powers  of  the 
body  social,,  and  involuntarily  they  cry  out  in 
horror  and  protest,  THIS  IS  EXOUGH  !  THERE 
MUST  BE  A  CHANGE!  And  they  turn  with 
loathing  and  disgust  from  the  Republican  and 
Democratic  parties  under  whose  joint  and  several 
maladministration  these  appalling  conditions  have 
been  brought  upon  the  country. 

The  message  of  Socialism,  which  a  few  years 
ago  was  spurned  by  these  people,  falls  today  upon 
eager  ears  and  receptive  minds.  Their  prejudice 
has  melted  away.  They  are  now  prepared  to  cast 
their  fortunes  with  the  only  political  party  that 
proposes  a  change  of  system  and  the  only  party 
that  has  a  right  to  appeal  to  the  intelligence  of 
the  people. 

First  Socialist  Congressman. 

The  political  beginning  of  the  Socialist  party 
in  this  country  is  now  distinctly  recognized  by  its 
most  implacable  enemies.  A  single  Socialist  con- 
gressman has  been  sufficient  to  arouse  the  whole 
nation  to  the  vital  issue  of  Socialism  which  con- 
fronts it.  Victor  L.  Berger  as  the  first  and  until 
now  the  only  representative  of  labor,  has  had  the 
power,  single-handed  and  alone,  to  compel  the 
respectful  consideration  of  the  American  congress, 
for  the  first  time  in  its  history,  of  the  rights  and 
interests  of  the  working  class.  To  be  sure  the 
capitalists  do  not  relish  this  and  so  they  have 
consolidated  the  Republican  and  Democratic  forces 
in  Berger's  district  to  defeat  him,  but  the  rising 


146  LABOR   AND   FEEEDOM. 

tide  of  Socialism  will  overwhelm  them  both  and 
not  only  triumphantly  re-elect  Berger  but  a  score 
of  others  to  make  the  next  congress  resound  with 
the  demands  of  the  working  class. 

Xow  is  the  time  for  the  workers  of  this  nation 
to  develop  and  assert  their  political  as  well  as 
their  economic  power,  to  demonstrate  their  unity 
and  solidarity. 

Back  up  the  economic  victory  at  Lawrence  with 
an  overwhelming  victory  at  the  ballot  box  !  Sweep 
the  minions  of  the  mill-owners  from  power  and 
fill  every  office  from  the  ranks  of  the  workers; 
Deliver  a  crushing  rebuke  to  the  hireling-officials 
of  San  Diego  by  a  united  vote  of  the  workers  that 
will  rescue  the  city  from  the  rule  of  the  degener- 
ates and  place  it  forever  under  a  working  class 
administration. 

The  Only  Democratic  Party. 

The  Socialist  party  is  the  only  party  of  the 
people,  the  only  party  opposed  to  the  rule  of  the 
plutocracy,  the  only  truly  democratic  party  in  the 
world. 

It  is  the  only  party  in  which  women  have  equal 
rights  with  men,  the  only  party  which  denies  mem- 
bership to  a  man  who  refuses  to  recognize  woman 
as  his  political  equal,  the  only  part}7  that  is  pledged 
to  strike  the  fetters  of  economic  and  political  slav- 
ery from  womanhood  and  pave  the  way  for  a  race 
of  free  women. 

The  Socialist  party  is  the  only  party  that  stands 
a  living  protest  against  the  monstrous  crime  of 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  147 

child  labor.  It  is  the  only  party  whose  triumph 
will  sound  onee  and  forever  the  knell  of  child 
slavery. 

There  is  no  hope  under  the  present  decaying 
system.  The  worker  who  votes  the  Republican  or 
Democratic  ticket  does  worse  than  throw  his  vote 
away.  He  is  a  deserter  of  his  class  and  his  own 
worst  enemy,,  though  he  may  be  in  blissful  ignor- 
ance of  the  fact  that  he  is  false  to  himself  and  his 
fellow-workers  and  that  sooner  or  later  he  must 
reap  what  he  has  sown. 

Wages  and  Cost  of  Living. 

The  latest  census  reports,  covering  the  year  1909, 
show  that  the  6,615,046  workers  in  manufactories 
in  the  United  States  were  paid  an  average  wage 
of  $519  for  the  year,  an  increase  of  not  quite  9  per 
cent  in  five  years,  and  an  increase  of  21  per  cent  in 
ten  years,  but  the  average  cost  of  living  increased 
more  than  40  per  cent  during  the  same  time,  to 
that  in  point  of  fact  the  wages  of  these  workers 
have  been  and  are  being  steadily  reduced  in  the  pro- 
gressive development  of  production  under  the  capi- 
talist system,  and  this  in  spite  of  all  the  resistance 
that  has  been  or  can  be  brought  to  bear  by  the 
federated  craft  unions.  Here  we  are  brought  face 
to  face  with  the  imperative  need  of  the  revolu- 
tionary industrial  union,  embracing  all  the  work- 
ers and  fighting  every  battle  for  increased  wages, 
shorter  hours  and  better  conditions  with  a  solid 
and  united  front,  while  at  the  same  time  pressing 
steadily  forward  in  harmonious  co-operation  and 


148  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

under  the  restraints  of  self-discipline,  developing 
the  latent  abilities  of  the  workers,  increasing  their 
knowledge,  and  fitting  them  for  the  mastery  and 
control  of  industry  when  the  victorious  hosts  of 
labor  conquer  the  public  powers  and  transfer  the 
title-deeds  of  the  mines  and  mills  and  factories 
from  the  idle  plutocrats  to  the  industrial  workers 
to  be  operated  for  the  common  good. 

Industrial  Unity. 

If  the  printing  trades  were  organized  on  the 
basis  of  industrial  unionism  the  spectacle  of  local 
unions  in  the  same  crafts  pitted  against  each  other 
to  their  mutual  destruction  would  not  be  presented 
to  us  in  the  City  of  Chicago,  and  the  capitalist 
newspaper  trust  would  not  now  have  its  heel  upon 
the  neck  of  the  union  pressmen.  For  this  lament- 
able state  of  affairs  the  craft  union  and  William 
Randolph  Heart,  its  chief  patron  and  promoter,  are 
entirely  responsible. 

The  Socialist  party  presents  the  farm  workers 
as  well  as  the  industrial  workers  with  a  platform 
and  program  which  must  appeal  to  their  intelli- 
gence and  command  their  support.  It  points  out 
to  them  clearly  why  their  situation  is  hopeless  un- 
der capitalism,  how  they  are  robbed  and  exploited, 
and  why  they  are  bound  to  make  common  cause 
with  the  industrial  workers  in  the  mills  and  fac- 
tories of  the  cities,  along  the  railways  and  in  the 
mines  in  the  struggle  for  emancipation. 

The  education,  organization  and  co-operation  of 
the  workers,  the  entire  body  of  them,  is  the  con- 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  149 

scious  aim  and  the  self-imposed  task  of  the  So- 
ciajist  party.  Persistently,  unceasingly  and  en- 
thusiastically this  great  work  is  being  accomplished. 
It  is  the  working  class  coming  into  consciousness 
of  itself,  and  no  power  on  earth  can  prevail  against 
it  in  the  hour  of  its  complete  awakening. 

Socialism  Is  Inevitable. 

The  laws  of  evolution  have  decreed  the  down- 
fall of  the  capitalist  system.  The  handwriting  is 
upon  the  wall  in  letters  of  fire.  The  trusts  are 
transforming  industry  and  next  will  come  the 
transformation  of  the  trusts  by  the  people.  So- 
cialism is  inevitable.  Capitalism  is  breaking  down 
and  the  new  order  evolving  from  it  is  clearly  the 
Socialist  commonwealth. 

The  present  evolution  can  only  culminate  in  in- 
dustrial and  social  democracy.,  and  in  alliance 
therewith  and  preparing  the  way  for  the  peaceable 
reception  of  the  new  order,  is  the  Socialist  move- 
ment, arousing  the  workers  and  educating  and  fit- 
ting them  to  take  possession  of  their  own  when  at 
last  the  struggle  of  the  centuries  has  been  crowned 
with  triumph. 

In  the  coming  social  order,  based  upon  the  so- 
cial ownership  of  the  means  of  life  and  the  pro- 
duction of  wealth  for  the  use  of  all  instead  of 
the  private  profit  of  the  few,  for  which  the  Socialist 
party  stands  in  this  and  every  other  campaign, 
peace  will  prevail  and  plenty  for  all  will  abound 
in  the  land.  The  brute  struggle  for  existence  will 
have  ended,  and  the  millions  of  exploited  poor  will 


150  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

be  rescued  from  the  skeleton  clutches  of  poverty 
and  famine.  Prostitution  and  the  white  slave  traf- 
fic, fostered  and  protected  under  the  old  order,  will 
be  a  horror  of  the  past. 

The  social  conscience  and  the  social  spirit  will 
prevail.  Society  will  have  a  new  birth,  and  the 
race  a  new  destiny.  There  will  be  work  for  all, 
leisure  for  all,  and  the  joys  of  life  for  all. 

Competition  there  will  be,  not  in  the  struggle 
for  existence,  but  to  excel  in  good  work  and  in 
social  service.  Every  child  will  then  have  an 
equal  chance  to  grow  up  in  health  and  vigor  of 
body  and  mind  and  an  equal  chance  to  rise  to  its 
full  stature  and  achieve  success  in  life. 

Socialist  Ideals. 

These  are  the  ideals  of  the  Socialist  party  and 
to  these  ideals  it  has  consecrated  all  its  energies 
and  all  its  powers.  The  members  of  the  Socialist 
party  are  the  party  and  their  collective  will  is  the 
supreme  law.  The  Socialist  party  is  organized  and 
ruled  from  the  bottom  up.  There  is  no  boss  and 
there  never  can  be  unless  the  party  deserts  its 
principles  and  ceases  to  be  a  Socialist  party. 

The  party  is  supported  by  a  dues-paying  mem- 
bership. It  is  the  only  political  party  that  is  so 
supported.  Each  member  has  not  only  an  equal 
voice  but  is  urged  to  take  an  active  part  in  all 
the  party  councils.  Each  local  meeting  place  is 
an  educational  center.  The  party  relies  wholly 
upon  the  power  of  education,  knowledge,  and  mu- 


LABOR   AND   FREEDOM.  151 

tual  understanding.    It  buys  no  votes  and  it  makes 
no  canvass  in  the  red-light  districts. 

The  press  of  the  patty  is  the  most  vital  factor 
in  its  educational  propaganda  and  the  workers  are 
everywhere  being  aroused  to  the  necessity  of  build- 
ing up  a  working  class  press  to  champion  their 
cause  and  to  discuss  current  issues  from  their  point 
of  view  for  the  enlightenment  of  the  masses. 

This  Is  Our  Year. 

Comrades  and  friends,  the  campaign  before  us 
gives  us  our  supreme  opportunity  to  reach  the 
American  people.  They  have  but  to  know  the  true 
meaning  of  Socialism  to  accept  its  philosophy  and 
the  true  mission  of  the  Socialist  party  to  give  it 
their  support.  Let  us  all  unite  as  we  never  have 
before  to  place  the  issue  of  Socialism  squarely  be- 
fore the  masses.  For  years  they  have  been  de- 
ceived, misled  and  betrayed,  and  they  are  now 
hungering  for  the  true  gospel  of  relief  and  the 
true  message  of  emancipation. 

This  is  our  year  in  the  United  States !  Social- 
ism is  in  the  very  air  we  breathe.  It  is  the  grand- 
est shibboleth  that  ever  inspired 'men  and  women 
to  action  in  this  world.  In  the  horizon  of  labor 
it  shines  as  a  new-risen  sun  and  it  is  the  hope 
of  all  humanity. 

Onward,  comrades,  onward  in  the  struggle,  until 
Triumphant  Socialism  proclaims  an  Emancipated 
Race  and  a  New  World ! 


152  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

THE  FIGHT  FOR  FREEDOM. 

Campaign  Speech,  Pabst  Park,   Milwaukee,  Wis.,  July  21,  1912. 

Friends,  Fellow-Socialists  and  Fellow- Workers : 
The  existing  order  of  things  is  breaking  down. 
The  great  forces  underlying  society  are  steadily  at 
work.  The  old  order  has  had  its  day  and  all  the 
signs  point  to  an  impending  change.  Society  is 
at  once  being  destroyed  and  re-created. 

The  struggle  in  which  we  are  engaged  today  is 
a  struggle  of  economic  classes.  The  supremacy  is 
now  held  by  the  capitalist  class,  who  are  combined 
in  trusts  and  control  the  powers  of  government. 
The  middle  class  is  struggling  desperately  to  hold 
its  ground  against  the  inroads  of  its  trustified  and 
triumphant  competitors. 

This  war  between  the  great  capitalists  who  are 
organized  in  trusts  and  fortified  by  the  powers  of 
government  and  the  smaller  capitalists  who  con- 
stitute the  middle  class,  is  one  of  extermination. 
The  fittest,  that  is  to  say  the  most  powerful,  will 
survive.  This  war  gives  rise  to  a  variety  of  issues 
of  which  the  tariff  is  the  principal  one,  and  these 
issues  are  defined  in  the  platforms  of  the  Republi- 
can and  Democratic  parties. 

With  this  war  between  capitalists  for  supremacy 
in  their  own  class  and  the  issues  arising  from  it, 
the  working  class  have  nothing  to  do,  and  if  they 
are  foolish  enough  to  allow  themselves  to  be  drawn 
into  these  battles  of  their  masters,  as  they  have 
so  often  done  in  the  past,  they  must  continue  to 
suffer  the  consequences  of  their  folly. 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  153 

Parties   Express  Economic   Interests. 

Let  us  clearly  recognize  the  forces  that  are  un- 
dermining both  of  the  old  capitalist  parties,  creat- 
ing a  new  issue,  and  driving  the  working  class 
into  a  party  of  their  own  to  do  battle  with  their 
oppressors  in  the  struggle  for  existence. 

Parties  but  express  in  political  terms  the  eco- 
nomic interests  of  those  who  compose  them.  This 
is  the  rule.  The  Eepublican  party  represents  the 
capitalist  class,  the  Democratic  party  the  middle 
class  and  the  Socialist  party  the  working  class. 

There  is  no  fundamental  difference  between  the 
Republican  and  Democratic  parties.  Their  prin- 
ciples are  identical.  They  are  both  capitalist  par- 
ties and  both  stand  for  the  capitalist  system,  and 
such  differences  as  there  are  between  them  involve 
no  principle  but  are  the  outgrowth  of  the  conflict- 
ing interests  of  large  and  small  capitalists. 

The  Eepublican  and  Democratic  parties  are 
alike  threatened  with  destruction.  Their  day  of 
usefulness  is  past  and  they  among  them  who  see 
the  handwriting  on  the  wall  and  call  themselves 
"Progressives"  and  "Insurgents,"  are  struggling  in 
vain  to  adjust  these  old  parties  to  the  new  condi- 
tions. 

Two  Economic  Classes. 

Broadly  speaking,  there  are  but  two  economic 
classes  and  the  ultimate  struggle  will  narrow  down 
to  two  political  parties.  To  the  extent  that  the 
workers  unite  in  their  own  party,  the  Socialist  par- 
ty, the  capitalists,  large  and  small,  are  driven  into 


154  LABOR   AND    FREEDOM. 

one  and  the  same  party.  This  has  happened  al- 
ready in  a  number  of  local  instances,  notably  in 
the  City  of  Milwaukee.  Here  there  is  no  longer 
a  Republican  or  Democratic  party.  These  have 
merged  in  the  same  party  and  it  is  a  capitalist  par- 
ty, by  whatever  name  it  may  be  known. 

Temporarily  this  united  capitalist  party,  com- 
posed of  the  two  old  ones,  may  stem  the  tide  of 
Socialist  advance,  but  nothing  more  clearly  reveals 
the  capitalist  class  character  of  the  Republican  and 
Democratic  parties  to  their  own  undoing  and  the 
undoing  of  the  capitalist  system  they  represent. 

The  great  capitalists  are  all  conservatives, 
"standpatters" ;  they  have  a  strangle-hold  upon  the 
situation  with  no  intention  of  relaxing  their  grip. 
Taft  and  Roosevelt  are  their  candidates.  It  may 
be  objected  that  Roosevelt  is  a  "Progressive."  That 
is  sheer  buncombe.  Roosevelt  was  president  almost 
eight  years  and  his  record  is  known.  When  he 
was  in  office  and  had  the  power,  he  did  none  of 
the  things,  nor  attempted  to  do  any  of  the  things 
he  is  now  talking  about  so  wildly.  On  the  con- 
trary, a  more  servile  functionary  to  the  trusts  than 
Theodore  Roosevelt  never  sat  in  the  presidential 
chair. 

La  Follette  vs.  Roosevelt. 

Senator  La  Toilette  now  makes  substantially  this 
same  charge  against  Roosevelt,  but  by  some  strange 
oversight  the  senator  did  not  discover  that  Roose- 
velf  s  presidential  record  was  a  trust  record  until 
after  Roosevelt  threw  him  down  in  the  "Progres- 
sive" scramble  for  the  Republican  nomination. 


LABOR   AND   FREEDOM.  155 

When  Senator  La  Follette  supposed  he  had 
Roosevelt's  backing,  he  pronounced  him  "the  great- 
est man  in  the  world/'  and  it  was  only  after  he 
fell  victim  to  Roosevelt's  duplicity  that  he  made 
the  discovery  that  Roosevelt  had  always  been  the 
tool  of  the  trusts  and  the  enemy  of  the  people. 
Test  of  Parties. 

There  is  one  infallible  test  that  fixes  the  status 
of  a  political  party  and  its  candidates.  Who  fi- 
nances them  ? 

With  this  test  applied  to  Theodore  Roosevelt 
we  have  no  trouble  in  locating  him.  He  is  above 
all  "a  practical  man."  He  was  practical  in  allow- 
ing the  steel  trust  to  raid  the  Tennessee  Coal  and 
Iron  Company ;  he  was  practical  when  he  legalized 
the  notorious  "Alton  Steal"  :  he  was  practical  when 
he  had  Harriman  raise  $240,000  for  his  campaign 
fund,  and  he  is  practical  now  in  having  the  steel 
trust  and  the  harvester  trust,  who  made  an  ante- 
room of  the  White  House  when  he  was  president, 
pour  out  their  slush  funds  by  millions  to  put  him 
back  in  the  White  House  and  keep  him  there. 

Financed  by  the  Trusts. 

Taft  and  Roosevelt,  and  the  Republican  party  of 
which  they  are  the  candidates,  are  all  financed 
by  the  trusts,  and  is  it  necessary  to  add  that  the 
trusts  also  consist  of  practical  men  and  that  they 
do  not  finance  a  candidate  or  a  party  they  do  not 
control  ? 

Is  the  man  not  foolish,  to  the  verge  of  being 
feeble-minded,  who  imagines  that  great  trust  mag- 


156  LABOE   AND    FREEDOM. 

nates,  such  as  Perkins,  McCormick  and  Munsey, 
are  flooding  the  country  with  Roosevelt  money 
because  he  is  the  champion  of  progressive  prin 
ciples  and  the  friend  of  the  common  people  ? 

The  truth  is  that  if  the  Bull  Moose  candidate 
dared  to  permit  an  itemized  publication  of  his 
campaign  contributions  in  his  present  mad  and  dis- 
graceful pursuit  of  the  presidency,  as  he  has  been 
so  often  challenged  to  do  by  Senator  La  Toilette, 
it  would  paralyze  him  and  scandalize  the  nation. 

Roosevelt  must  stand  upon  the  record  he  made 
when  he  was  president  and  had  the  power,  and 
not  upon  his  empty  promises  as  a  ranting  dema- 
gogue and  a  vote-seeking  politician. 

For  the  very  reason  that  the  trusts  are  pouring 
out  their  millions  to  literally  buy  his  nomination 
and  election  and  force  him  into  the  White  House 
for  a  third  term,  and  if  possible  for  life,  the  people 
should  rise  in  their  might  and  repudiate  him  as 
they  never  have  repudiated  a  recreant  official  who 
betrayed  his  trust. 

So  much  for  the  Republican  party,  led  by  Lin- 
coln half  a  century  ago  as  the  party  of  the  people 
in  the  struggle  for  the  overthrow  of  chattel  slav- 
ery, and  now  being  scuttled  by  Taft  and  Roose- 
velt in  base  servility  to  the  plutocracy. 

The  Democratic  Party. 

The  Democratic  party,  like  its  Republican  ally, 
is  a  capitalist  party,  the  only  difference  being  that 
it  represents  the  minor  divisions  of  the  capitalist 
class.  It  is  true  that  there  are  some  plutocrats 


LABOR   AND   FREEDOM.  157 

and  trust  magnates  in  the  Democratic  party,  but 
as  a  rule  it  is  composed  of  the  smaller  capitalists 
who  have  been  worsted  by  the  larger  ones  and  are 
now  demanding  that  the  trusts  be  destroyed  and, 
in  effect,  that  the  laws  of  industrial  evolution  be 
suspended. 

The  Democratic  party,  like  the  Republican  par- 
ty, is  financed  by  the  capitalist  class.  Belmont, 
Ryan,  Roger  Sullivan,  Taggart  and  Hinky  Dink 
are  liberal  contributors  to  its  fund.  The  Tammany 
organization  in  New  York,  notorious  for  its  cor- 
ruption and  for  its  subserviency  to  the  powers  that 
rule  in  capitalist  society,  is  one  of  the  controlling 
factors  in  the  Democratic  party. 

Woodrow  Wilson  is  the  candidate  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party  for  president.  He  was  seized  upon  as 
a  "progressive";  as  a  man  who  would  appeal  to 
the  common  people,  but  he  never  could  have  been 
nominated  without  the  votes  controlled  by  Tam- 
many and  the  "predatory  interests"  so  fiercely  de- 
nounced in  the  convention  by  William  Jennings 
Bryan. 

It  is  true  that  Woodrow  Wilson  was  not  the  first 
choice  of  Belmont,  Ryan,  Murphy  and  the  Tam- 
many corruptionists,  but  he  was  nevertheless  satis- 
factory to  them  or  they  would  not  have  agreed  to 
his  nomination,  and  since  the  convention  it  is  quite 
apparent  that  Wilson  has  a  working  agreement 
and  a  perfect  understanding  with  the  predatory 
interests  which  Bryan  sought  to  scourge  from  the 
convention. 


158  LABOR   AND    FREEDOM. 

Bryan  and  Wilson. 

In  liis  speech  before  the  delegates  denouncing 
Ryan,  Belmont  and  Murphy,  Bryan  solemnly  de- 
clared that  no  candidate  receiving  their  votes  and 
the  votes  of  Murphy's  "ninety  wax  figures"  could 
have  his  support.  Woodrow  Wilson  received  these 
votes  and  without  these  and  other  votes  controlled 
by  "the  interests"  he  could  not  have  been  nomi- 
nated, and  if  Bryan  now  supports  him  he  simply 
stultifies  himself  before  the  American  people. 

Mr.  Wilson  is  no  more  the  candidate  of  the 
working  class  than  is  Mr.  Taft  or  Mr.  Roosevelt. 
Neither  one  of  them  has  ever  been  identified  with 
the  working  class,  has  ever  associated  with  the 
working  class,  except  when  their  votes  were  wanted, 
or  would  dare  to  avow  himself  the  candidate  of 
the  working  class. 

When  the  recent  strikes  occurred  at  Perth  Am- 
boy  and  other  industrial  centers  in  New  Jersey, 
Governor  Woodrow  Wilson  ordered  the  militia  out 
to  shoot  down  the  strikers  just  as  Governor  Theo- 
dore Roosevelt  ordered  out  the  soldiers  to  murder 
the  strikers  at  Croton  Dam,  N.  Y.,  for  demanding 
the  enforcement  of  the  state  laws  against  the  con- 
tractors. 

They  Reek  With  Corruption. 

Both  the  Republican  and  Democratic  parties 
reek  with  corruption  in  their  servility  to  the  capi- 
talist class,  and  both  are  torn  with  strife  in  their 
mad  scramble  for  the  spoils  of  office. 

The  Democratic  party  has  had  little  excuse  for 


\          LABOR   AND   FREEDOM.  159 

existence  since  the  Civil  War,  and  its  utter  impo- 
tcncy  to  deal  with  present  conditions  was  made 
glaringly  manifest  during  its  brief  lease  of  power 
under  the  Cleveland  administration.  Should  this 
party  succeed  to  national  power  once  more,  seeth- 
ing as  it  is  with  conflicting  elements  which  are 
held  together  by  the  prospect  of  official  spoils,  its 
career  as  a  national  party  would  be  brought  to 
an  early  close  by  self-destruction. 

The  Eepublican  convention  at  Chicago  and  the 
Democratic  convention  at  Baltimore  were  com- 
posed of  professional  politcians,  office-holders,  of- 
fice-seekers, capitalists,,  retainers,  and  swarms  of 
parasites  and  mercenaries  of  all  descriptions. 

There  were  no  workingmen  in  either  conven- 
tion. They  were  not  fit  to  be  there.  All  they  are 
fit  for  is  to  march  in  the  mud,  yell  themselves 
hoarse,  and  ratify  the  choice  of  their  masters  on 
election  day. 

The  working  class  was  not  represented  in  the 
Republican  convention  at  Chicago  or  the  Demo- 
cratic convention  at  Baltimore.  Those  were  the 
political  conventions  of  the  capitalist  class  and 
the  few  flattering  platform  phrases  in  reference 
to  labor  were  incorporated  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
catching  the  votes  of  the  working  class. 

Let  the  American  workers  remember  that  they 
are  not  fit  to  sit  as  delegates  in  a  Eepublican  or 
Democratic  national  convention ;  that  they  are  not 
fit  to  write  a  Republican  or  Democratic  national 
platform;  that  all  they  are  fit  for  is  to  elect  the 
candidates  of  their  masters  to  office  so  that  when 


160  LABOR   AND    FREEDOM. 

they  go  out  on  strike  against  starvation  they  may 
be  shot  dead  in  their  tracks  as  the  reward  of  their 
servility  to  their  masters  and  their  treason  to  them- 
selves. 

Vital  Issue  Ignored. 

The  vital  issue  before  the  country  and  the  world 
is  not  touched,  nor  even  mentioned  in  the  Repub- 
lican or  Democratic  platforms.  Wage-slavery  un- 
der capitalism,  the  legalized  robbery  of  the  work- 
ers of  what  is  produced  by  their  labor,  is  the  funda- 
mental crime  against  modern  humanity,  but  there 
is  no  room  for  the  mention  of  this  vital  fact,  this 
living  issue  in  the  platforms  of  the  Republican  and 
Democratic  parties.  They  continue  to  babble  about 
the  tariff  and  other  inconsequential  matters  to 
obscure  the  real  issue  and  wheedle  the  workers 
into  voting  them  into  power  once  more. 

These  parties  have  been  in  power  all  these  years, 
why  have  they  not  settled  the  tariff  and  the  cur- 
rency and  such  other  matters  a?  make  up  their 
platform  pledges? 

Let  Them  Act  Now. 

While  the  Republican  convention  was  in  session 
at  Chicago  and  while  the  Democratic  convention 
was  in  session  at  Baltimore,  the  Republican  and 
Democratic  congress  was  also  in  session  at  Wash- 
ington. These  parties  already  have  the  power  to 
make  good  their  promises,  then  why  do  they  not 
exercise  that  power  to  redeem  their  pledges  and 
afford  relief  to  the  people? 

In  other  words,  why  do  not  the  Republican  and 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  161 

Democratic  parties  perform  at  Washington  in- 
stead of  promising  at  Chicago  and  Baltimore? 
How  many  more  years  of  power  do  they  require 
to  demonstrate  that  they  are  the  parties  of  the 
capitalist  class  and  that  they  never  intend  to  legis- 
late in  the  interest  of  the  working  class,  or  provide 
relief  for  the  suffering  people. 

The  Republican  and  Democratic  platforms  are 
filled  with  empty  platitudes  and  meaningless 
phrases,  but  they  are  discreetly  silent  about  the 
millions  of  unemployed,  about  the  starvation  wages 
of  factory  slaves,  about  the  women  and  children 
who  are  crushed,  debased  and  slowly  tortured  to 
death  by  the  moloch  of  capitalism,  about  the  white 
slave  traffic,  about  the  bitter  poverty  of  the  masses 
and  their  hopeless  future,  and  about  every  other 
vital  question  which  is  worthy  of  an  instant's  con- 
sideration by  any  intelligent  human  being. 

The  Socialist  Party. 

In  contrast  with  these  impotent,  corrupt  and 
senile  capitalist  parties,  without  principles  and 
without  ideals,  stands  the  virile  young  working 
class  party,  the  international  Socialist  party  of 
the  world.  The  convention  which  nominated  its 
candidates  and  wrote  its  platform  at  Indianapolis 
was  a  working  class  convention. 

The  Socialist  party  is  the  only  party  which  hon- 
estly represents  the  working  class  in  this  cam- 
paign and  the  only  party  that  has  a  moral  right 
to  appeal  to  the  allegiance  and  support  of  the  work- 
ers and  producers  of  the  nation. 


162  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

I  am  not  asking  you  to  give  your  votes  to  this 
party  but  only  that  you  read  its  platform,  study 
its  program,  and  satisfy  yourselves  as  to  what  its 
principles  are,  what  it  stands  for,  and  what  it 
expects  to  accomplish. 

The  Socialist  party  being  the  political  expres- 
sion of  the  rising  working  class  stands  for  the 
absolute  overthrow  of  the  existing  capitalist  sys- 
tem and  for  the  reorganization  of  society  into  an 
industrial  and  social  democracy 

Death  to  Wage-Slavery. 

This  will  mean  an  end  to  the  private  ownership 
of  the  means  of  life ;  it  will  mean  an  end  to  wage- 
slavery;  it  will  mean  an  end  to  the  army  of  the 
unemployed;  it  will  mean  an  end  to  the  poverty 
of  the  masses,  the  prostitution  of  womanhood,  and 
the  murder  of  childhood. 

It  will  mean  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  of  civ- 
lization;  the  dawn  of  a  happier  day  for  the  chil- 
dren of  men.  It  will  mean  that  this  earth  is  for 
those  who  inhabit  it  and  wealth  for  those  who 
produce  it.  It  will  mean  society  organized  upon  a 
co-operative  basis,  collectively  owning  the  sources 
of  wealth  and  the  means  of  production,  and  pro 
ducing  wealth  to  satisfy  human  wants  and  not  to 
gorge  a  privileged  few.  It  will  mean  that  there 
shall  be  work  for  the  workers  and  that  all  shall 
be  workers,  and  it  will  also  mean  that  there  shall 
be  leisure  for  the  workers  and  that  all  shall  en- 
joy it.  It  will  mean  that  women  shall  be  the 
comrades  and  equals  of  men.  sharing  with  them 


LABOR  AND  FREEDOM.  168 

on  equal  terms  the  opportunities  as  well  as  the 
responsibilities,  the  benefits  as  well  as  the  burdens 
of  civilized  life. 

The  Socialist  party,  the  first  and  only  inter- 
national party,  is  rising  grandly  to  power  all 
around  the  world.  In  every  land  beneath  the  sun 
it  is  the  party  of  the  dispossessed,  the  impover- 
ished and  the  heavy-laden. 

It  is  the  twentieth  century  party  of  human 
emancipation. 

It  stands  for  a  world-wide  democracy,  for  the 
freedom  of  every  man,  woman  and  child,  and  for 
the  civilization  of  all  mankind. 

The  Socialist  party  buys  no  votes.  It  scorns 
to  traffic  in  ignorance.  It  realizes  that  education, 
knowledge  and  the  powers  these  confer  are  the  only 
means  of  achieving  a  decided  and  permanent  vic- 
tory for  the  people. 

A  Clean  Campaign. 

The  campaign  of  the  Socialist  party  is  a  clean 
campaign;  it  is  essentially  educational;  an  appeal 
to  intelligence,  to  manliness,  to  womanliness,  and 
to  all  things  of  good  report. 

The  workers  are  opening  their  eyes  at  last.  They 
are  beginning  to  see  the  light.  They  are  taking 
heart  of  hope  because  they  are  becoming  conscious 
of  their  power. 

They  are  rallying  to  the  standard  of  the  Social- 
ist party  because  they  know  that  this  is  their  party 
and  that  here  they  are  master,  and  here  they  sit 
at  their  own  political  hearthstone  and  fireside. 


164  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

No  longer  can  the  workers  be  pitted  against  each 
other  in  capitalist  parties  by  designing  politicians 
to  their  mutual  undoing.  They  have  made  the  dis- 
covery that  they  have  brains  as  well  as  hands,  that 
they  can  think  as  well  as  work,  and  that  they  do 
not  need  politicians  to  advise  them  how  to  vote, 
nor  masters  to  rob  them  of  the  fruits  of  their  la- 
bor. 

Slowly  but  surely  there  is  being  established  the 
economic  and  political  unity  and  solidarity  of  the 
workers  of  the  world.  The  Socialist  party  is  the 
political  expression  of  that  unity  and  solidarity. 

Unity  the  Keynote. 

I  appeal  to  the  workers  assembled  here  today  in 
the  name  of  the  Socialist  party.  I  appeal  to  you 
as  one  of  you  to  unite  and  make  common  cause  in 
this  great  struggle. 

To  the  extent  that  you  have  made  progress,  to 
the  extent  that  you  have  developed  power,  and  to 
the  extent  that  you  have  achieved  victory,  to  that 
extent  you  are  indebted  to  your  own  class-conscious 
efforts  and  your  own  industrial  and  political  or- 
ganization. To  the  extent  that  you  lack  power, 
to  the  extent  that  you  are  defeated  and  kept  in 
bondage,  to  that  extent  you  lack  in  economic  and 
political  solidarity. 

Rightly  organized  and  soundly  disciplined  on 
both  the  economic  and  political  fields,  the  working 
class  can  prevail  against  the  world. 

The  economic  organization  and  the  political  par- 
ty of  the  working  class  must  both  be  revolutionary 


LABOR   AND   FREEDOM.  165 

and  they  must  work  together  hand  in  hand.  In- 
dustrial unionism  means  industrial  solidarity,  but 
craft  unionism  means  division  and  disaster.  The 
printing  trades  pitted  against  each  other  in  Chi- 
cago in  their  struggle  with  the  newspaper  trust 
furnish  a  fatal  illustration  of  the  weakness  and 
treachery  of  craft  division  in  the  present  industrial 
conflict. 

The  Workers  of  Milwaukee. 

The  workers  of  Milwaukee  have  to  an  exceptional 
extent  overcome  the  obstacles  to  unity  and  have 
worked  together  with  signal  success  on  both  the 
economic  and  political  fields.  I  appeal  to  them  in 
the  name  of  the  future  to  get  closer  and  closer 
together  in  the  bonds  of  economic  and  political 
solidarity.  If  they  do  this  their  complete  arid  final 
victory  is  assured. 

The  Socialist  party  of  Milwaukee  has  marched 
steadily  to  the  front  since  it  first  began  its  career. 
Its  latest  defeat  was  its  greatest  victory.  It 
forced  the  Republicans  and  Democrats  to  unmask 
and  to  fly  into  each  other's  arms.  There  is  no 
Republican  or  Democratic  party  in  Milwaukee. 
They  are  dead,  and  in  the  coming  election  their 
remains,  masquerading  as  a  party  of  the  people, 
will  be  buried  by  the  Socialist  party. 

The  First  Congressman. 

The  Socialists  of  Milwaukee  will  always  have 
the  distinction  of  having  elected  the  first  repre- 
sentative of  the  working  class  to  the  congress  of 
the  United  States.  Victor  L.  Berger  has  made 


166  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

good  at  Washington.  For  the  first  time  since  he 
is  a  member  the  voice  of  labor  has  been  distinctly 
heard  on  the  floors  of  congress,  and  in  every 
emergency  when  the  working  class  needed  a  cham- 
pion at  the  seat  of  power,  they  found  him  ready 
and  eager  to  espouse  their  cause  and  defend  their 
interests. 

It  was  to  defeat  Berger's  re-election  that  the  Re- 
publicans and  Democrats  in  Milwaukee  combined, 
just  as  they  did  to  defeat  Emil  Seidel  for  mayor 
and  drive  the  Socialist  administration  from  power. 

But  Berger  is  making  a  record  at  Washington 
and  the  Socialist  administration  made  a  record 
in  Milwaukee  that  will  stand  the  test  of  time,  and 
if  the  workers  now  rally  their  forces  in  support 
of  Berger,  he  will  be  triumphantly  re-elected  against 
the  combined  opposition  of  the  old  parties,  and  in 
the  next  municipal  election  the  City  of  Milwaukee 
will  be  permanently  restored  to  a  Socialist  ad- 
ministration. 

Comrades,  you  are  face  to  face  with  the  greatest 
struggle  you  have  ever  had  since  the  Socialist  par- 
ty was  organized.  You  are  now  to  be  tested  in 
every  fiber  as  to  your  fitness  to  hold  the  ground 
you  have  gained  and  to  press  on  to  greater  vic- 
tories. May  you  be  permeated  to  the  core  with 
the  spirit  of  the  Socialist  movement  and  enter 
the  fray  resolved  that  victory  shall  be  inscribed 
upon  your  banners. 

Ettor  and  Qiovanmtti. 
I  must  not  fail  in  the  presence  of  all  these  work- 


LABOR    AND    FREEDOM.  167 

ers  to  speak  of  Joseph  EttorandArturoGiovannitti, 
the  leaders  of  the  Lawrence  strike,  \vho  are  in 
prison  and  soon  to  be  tried  upon  the  charge  of 
murder,  of  which  the}7  are  as  innocent  as  if  they 
had  never  been  born. 

This  infamous  charge  has  been  trumped  up 
against  them  by  the  defeated  mill  owners  for  no 
other  reason  than  that  they  stood  up  bravely  and 
fought  successfully  against  great  odds,  the  battles 
of  the  wage-slaves  of  the  mills.  Unless  the  work- 
ers unite  in  support  of  these  two  leaders  they  may 
be  sent  to  the  electric  chair.  Should  we  suffer  these 
brave  comrades  to  fall  victims  to  such  a  monstrous 
crime,  it  would  be  a  foul  and  indelible  blot  upon 
the  whole  labor  movement.  Let  us  arouse  the 
workers  of  the  nation  in  their  behalf  and  prove  to 
them  when  their  trial  takes  place  that  we  are  as 
true*  to  them  as  they  were  to  the  wage-slaves  in 
the  industrial  battle  at  Lawrence. 

Comrades,  this  is  our  year!  Let  us  rise  to  our 
full  stature,  summon  our  united  powers,  and 
strike  a  blow  for  freedom  that  will  be  felt  around 
the  world ! 

CAPITALISM  AND   SOCIALISM. 

Campaign    Speech,     Lyceum    Theatre,     Fergus    Falls,     Minn., 
August    27,    1912. 

Friends  and  Fellow-Workers:  The  spirit  of 
our  time  is  revolutionary  and  growing  more  so 
every  day.  A  new  social  order  is  struggling  into 


168  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

existence.  The  old  economic  foundation  of  society 
is  breaking  up  and  the  social  fabric  is  beginning 
to  totter.  The  capitalist  system  is  doomed.  The 
signs  of  change  confront  us  upon  every  hand. 

Social  changes  are  preceded  by  agitation  and 
unrest  among  the  masses.  We  are  today  in  the 
transition  period  between  decaying  capitalism  and 
growing  Socialism.  The  old  system  is  being  shaken 
to  its  foundations  by  the  forces  underlying  it  and 
its  passing  is  but  a  question  of  time.  The  new 
system  that  is  to  succeed  the  old  is  developing 
within  the  old  and  its  outline  is  clearly  revealed 
in  its  spirit  of  mutualism  and  its  co-operative 
manifestations. 

For  countless  ages  the  world  has  been  a  vast 
battlefield  and  the  struggle  for  existence  a  per- 
petual conflict.  Primitive  peoples  were  compelled 
to  fight  nature  to  extort  from  her  the  means  of 
livelihood.  Since  the  forces  of  nature  have  been 
conquered  and  nations  have  become  civilized  the 
struggle  of  men  is  no  longer  to  overcome  nature 
but  with  one  another  for  existence. 

In  this  struggle  which  has  appealed  to  the  basest 
and  not  to  the  best  in  man  the  cunning  few  have 
triumphed  and  now  have  the  masses  at  their  mercy. 
These  few  are  closely  allied  in  their  economic  mas- 
tery as  they  are  also  in  their  control  of  the  politi- 
cal machinery.  Their  money  and  their  mercenaries 
controlled  the  Republican  convention  at  Chicago, 
wrote  its  platform  and  dictated  its  nominees,  and 
the  same  is  true  of  the  Democratic  convention  at 
Baltimore. 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  109 

As  for  the  so-called  Progressive  convention,  it  is 
sufficient  to  say  that  there  is  no  attempt  to  con- 
ceal the  fact  that  it  was  financed  and  controlled 
by  three  conspicuous  representatives  of  the  plu- 
tocracy which  largely  owns  and  rules  the  land. 

Political  parties  are  responsive  to  the  interests 
of  those  who  finance  them.  This  is  the  infallible 
test  of  their  character  and  applied  to  the  Republi- 
can, Democratic  and  Progressive  parties,  these  par- 
ties stand  forth  as  the  several  political  expres- 
sions of  the  several  divisions  of  the  capitalist  class. 
The  funds  of  all  these  parties  are  furnished  by 
the  capitalist  class  for  the  reason,  and  only  for  the 
reason,  that  they  represent  the  interests  of  that 
class. 

Professional  politicians  of  whatever  party  are 
very  much  alike  and  in  one  respect  at  least  they 
are  like  workingmen,  they  serve  the  interests  of 
their  masters,  and  for  the  same  reason. 

The  patriotism  of  professional  politicians  is  re- 
flected in  the  material  interests  of  the  master  class 
and  this  fact  has  become  so  apparent  that  their 
noisy  theatricals  have  lost  their  magic  and  now 
excite  but  the  scorn  and  derision  of  intelligent, 
working  men  and  women. 

The  Republican,  Democratic  and  Progressive 
conventions  were  composed  in  the  main  and  con- 
trolled entirely  by  professional  politicians  in  the 
service  of  the  ruling  class. 

There  were  no  working  men  and  no  working 
women  at  the  "Republican  convention,  the  Demo- 
cratic convention,  or  the  Progressive  convention . 


170  LABOR   AND    FREEDOM. 

These  were  clearly  not  working  class  conven- 
tions. Ladies  and  gentlemen  of  leisure  were  in 
evidence  at  them  all.  Wage-slaves  would  not  have 
been  tolerated  in  their  company.  They  repre- 
sented the  wealth  and  culture  and  refinement  of 
society  and  they  were  there  to  applaud  and  smile 
approval  upon  the  professional  politcians  and  pa- 
triots who  were  doing  their  work. 

But  there  was  a  fourth  convention  held  this  year 
which  did  not  attract  the  wealthy  and  leisure 
classes.  It  was  a  convention  great  in  purpose, 
though  not  big  in  numbers.  This  convention  was 
held  at  Indianapolis  and  represented  the  working 
class.  The  delegates  who  composed  this  conven- 
tion were  chosen  by  the  workers  and  paid  by  the 
workers  to  represent  the  interest  of  the  workers 
and  to  clear  the  way  for  the  workers  in  the  present 
campaign. 

The  Socialist  convention  was  the  only  demo- 
cratic convention  and  the  only  progressive  con- 
vention held  this  year;  the  only  convention  that 
represented  a  dues-paying  party  membership  and 
whose  acts  before  becoming  effective  must  be  rati- 
fied by  a  referendum  vote  of  the  party. 

The  Socialist  party  is  the  only  party  in  this 
campaign  that  stands  against  the  present  system 
and  for  the  rule  of  the  people;  the  only  party  that 
boldly  avows  itself  the  party  of  the  working  class 
and  its  purpose  the  overthrow  of  wage-slavery. 

So  long  as  the  present  system  of  capitalism  pre- 
vails and  the  few  are  allowed  to  own  the  nation's 
industries,  the  toiling  masses  will  be  struggling 


LABOR   AND   FREEDOM.  171 

in  the  hell  of  poverty  as  they  are  today.  To  tell 
them  that  juggling  with  the  tariff  will  change  this 
beastly  and  disgraceful  condition  is  to  insult  their 
intelligence.  The  professional  politicians  who 
have  been  harping  upon  this  string  since  infant 
industries  have  become  giant  monopolies  know  bet- 
ter. Their  stock  in  trade  is  the  credulity  of  the 
masses. 

The  exploited  wage-slaves  of  free  trade  England 
and  of  the  highly  protected  United  States  are  the 
victims  of  the  same  capitalism ;  in  England  the 
politicians  tell  them  they  are  suffering  because 
they  have  no  protective  tariff  and  in  the  United 
States  they  tell  them  that  the  tariff  is  the  cause 
of  their  poverty. 

And  this  is  the  kind  of  a  confidence  game  the 
professional  politicians  have  been  playing  with  the 
workers  of  all  nations  all  these  years.  To  keep 
them  in  subjection  by  playing  upon  their  ignorance 
is  the  rule  that  governs  their  campaigns  for  votes 
among  the  workers.  The  "issues"  upon  which  they 
keep  the  workers  divided  into  hostile  camps  are 
of  their  own  making. 

Since  the  foundation  of  the  government  one  or 
the  other  of  these  capitalist  parties  has  been  in 
power  and  under  their  administration  the  work- 
ing and  producing  millions  have  been  reduced  to 
poverty  and  slavery.  Professor  Scott  bearing  has 
shown  in  his  work  on  the  wages  of  American  work- 
ers that  half  of  the  adult  males  of  the  United 
States  are  earning  less  than  $500;  that  three- 
quarters  of  them  are  earning'  less  than  $600  a 


172  LABOR   AND   FREEDOM. 

year;  that  nine-tenths  of  them  are  receiving  less 
than  $900  a  year,  while  10  per  cent  only  receive 
more  than  that  figure. 

Professor  Nearing  also  shows  the  starvation 
wages  for  which  women  are  compelled  to  work 
in  the  present  system.  One-fifth  of  the  whole  num- 
ber of  women  workers  receive  less  than  $200  per 
year;  three-fifths  receive  less  than  $325;  nine- 
tenths  receive  less  than  $500.  Only  one-twentieth 
of  the  women  employed  are  paid  more  than  $600 
per  year. 

These  figures  bear  out  the  report  of  the  Chicago 
vice  commission  to  the  effect  that  the  low  wages 
of  women  and  girls  go  hand  in  hand  with  prostitu- 
tion. Despite  all  attempts  to  control  the  white 
slave  traffic,  which  is  now  organized  as  one  of  the 
great  profit-extorting  trusts,  along  with  the  rest 
of  the  trusts,  prostitution,  like  a  terrible  cancer, 
is  eating  out  the  very  heart  of  our  civilization. 

And  in  the  presence  of  this  appalling  condition 
the  professional  politcians  prattle  about  tariff  re- 
vision and  indulge  in  silly  twaddle  about  currency 
reform  and  regulation  of  the  trusts. 

The  Socialist  party  is  absolutely  the  only  party 
which  faces  conditions  as  they  are  and  declares  un- 
hesitatingly that  it  has  a  definite  and  concrete  plan 
and  program  for  dealing  with  these  conditions. 

The  Socialist  party  as  the  party  of  the  exploited 
workers  in  the  mills  and  mines,  on  the  railways 
and  on  the  farms,  the  workers  of  both  sexes  and 
all  races  and  colors,  the  working  class  in  a  word, 
constituting  a  great  majority  of  the  people  and  in 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  173 

fact  THE  PEOPLE,  demands  that  the  nation's 
industries  shall  be  taken  over  by  the  nation  and 
that  the  nation's  workers  shall  operate  them  for 
the  benefit  of  the  whole  people. 

Private  ownership  and  competition  have  had 
their  day.  The  Socialist  party  stands  for  social 
ownership  and  co-operation.  The  one  is  Capital- 
ism; the  other  Socialism.  The  one  industrial  des- 
potism, the  other  industrial  democracy. 

The  Republican,  Democratic  and  Progressive 
parties  all  stand  for  private  ownership  and  com- 
petition. The  Socialist  party  alone  stands  for  so- 
cial ownership  and  co-operation. 

The  Republican,  Democratic  and  Progressive 
parties  believe  in  regulating  the  trusts ;  the  Socialist 
party  believes  in  owning  them,  so  that  all  the  peo- 
ple may  get  the  benefit  of  them  instead  of  a  few 
being  made  plutocrats  and  the  masses  impover- 
ished. 

The  Republican,  Democratic  and  Progressive 
parties  uphold  the  wage  system;  the  Socialist  par- 
ty demands  its  overthrow. 

It  is  under  the  wage  system  that  the  22,000  op- 
eratives in  the  cotton  and  woolen  mills  at  Law- 
rence, Massachusetts,  have  been  compelled  to  work, 
or  slave  rather,  according  to  Commissioner  Neill, 
for  an  average  of  $8.76  per  family.  To  earn  this 
average  wage,  according  to  the  commissioner's  of- 
ficial report,  requires  the  combined  service  of  fa- 
ther, mother  and  three  children.  This  is  slavery 
with  a  vengeance.  The  mill  is  a  sweat-hole;  the 


174  LABOR   AND  FREEDOM. 

hovel  a  breeding-pen.  Home  there  is  none.  And 
there  never  will  be  under  the  wage  system. 

What  have  the  Republican,  Democratic  and  Pro- 
gressive parties  to  offer  to  the  wage-slaves  of  Law- 
rence, to  the  wage-slaves  of  the  steel  trust,  to  the 
wage-slaves  of  the  mines,  to  the  wage-slaves  of  the 
lumber  and  turpentine  camps  of  the  South,  the 
wage-slaves  of  the  railroads,  the  millions  of  them, 
male  and  female,  black  and  white  and  yellow  and 
brown,  who  produce  all  this  nation's  wealth,  sup- 
port its  government  and  conserve  its  civilization, 
and  without  whom  industry  would  be  paralyzed 
and  the  nation  helpless?  What,  I  ask,  has  any  of 
these  capitalist  parties,  or  all  of  them  combined, 
for  the  working  and  producing  class  in  this  cam- 
paign ?  Nothing.  Absolutely  nothing. 

These  parties  are  bidding  stronger  than  ever 
for  the  labor  vote  this  year.  That  vote  is  now  not 
so  easily  delivered  as  in  the  past.  The  competi- 
tion for  the  votes  of  the  wage-workers  is  the  dis- 
tinguishing feature  of  the  present  campaign.  Thou- 
sands of  workers  are  now  doing  their  own  think- 
ing. They  have  discovered  that  workers  are  as 
much  out  of  place  in  a  capitalist  party  as  capital- 
ists are  in  a  workers'  party.  They  have  also  found 
that  politics  express  class  interests  and  that  the 
interests  of  those  who  make  the  wealth  and  those 
who  take  it  are  not  identical.  That  is  where  the 
Socialist  party  comes  in  and  where  the  workers 
come  in  the  Socialist  party. 

The  working  class  is  in  politics  this  year.     It 


LABOR   AND    FREEDOM.  175 

has  always  been  in  politics  for  its   master;  this 
year  it  is  in  politics  for  itself. 

The  most  promising  fact  in  the  world  today  is 
the  fact  that  labor  is  organizing  it?  power;  its  eco- 
nomic power  and  its  political  power. 

The  workers  who  have  made  the  world  and  who 
support  the  world,  are  preparing  to  take  possession 
of  the  world.  This  is  the  meaning  of  Socialism 
and  is  what  the  Socialist  party  stands  for  in  this 
campaign. 

We  demand  the  machinery  of  production  in  the 
name  of  the  workers  and  the  control  of  society  in 
the  name  of  the  people.  We  demand  the  abolition 
of  capitalism  and  wage-slavery  and  the  surrender 
of  the  capitalist  class.  We  demand  the  complete 
enfranchisement  of  women  and  the  equal  rights 
of  all  the  people  regardless  of  race,  color,  creed 
or  nationality.  We  demand  that  child  labor  shall 
cease  once  and  forever  and  that  all  children  born 
into  the  world  shall  have  equal  opportunity  to 
grow  up,  to  be  educated,  to  have  healthy  bodies  and 
trained  minds,  and  to  develop  and  freely  express 
the  best  there  is  in  them  in  mental,  moral  and 
physical  achievement. 

We  demand  complete  control  of  industry  by  the 
workers;  we  demand  all  the  wealth  they  produce 
for  their  own  enjoyment,  and  we  demand  the  earth 
for  all  the  people. 


Pege 
The  Old  Umbrella  Mender 9 

The  Secret  of  Efficient  Expression 15 

Jesus,  the  Supreme  Leader. 22 

Susan  B.  Anthony 29 

Louis  Tikas 33 

The  Little  Lords  of  Love 37 

The   Coppock   Bros 39 

The    Social    Spirit 51 

Roosevelt  and  His  Regime 55 

Industrial  and  Social  Democracy 73 

A  Message  to  the  Children 76 

Social   Reform 89 

Danger   Ahead 89 

Pioneer   Women   in   America 95 

SPEECHES 

Unity  and  Victory 107 

Political   Appeal   to  American   Workers 132 

The  Fight  for  Freedom ,. 152 

Capitalism   and   Socialism 167 


A     000  626  810 


